FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF HYPERELASTIC MATERIALS: ELASTOMERIC SEAL

摘要

Seals are critical components in virtually all mechanical devices, which are used for closing the gap and/or to separate two liquids or gasses in static or dynamic applications. But the complexity of seals and the difficulties associated with resolving essential parameters, both material and geometric, have hindered the effectiveness of experimental and theoretical understanding of seal design. The present paper describes the axisymmetric analysis of elastomeric seals at medium strain (strain less than 100%) under static and dynamic conditions using Abaqus software. The stress strain behavior of a black filled ethylene propylene (EPDM) rubber are studied in extension over a range of temperature to examine the validity of Arruda-Boyce, Mooney-Rivlin, Neo-Hooke, Ogden, Polynomial, Reduced polynomial, Van der Waals and Yeoh models. The analytical form for strain energy density function of Arruda-Boyce model gives a very good fit to the experimental data for strains less than 100%, which cover the range of interest for most engineering applications.