Numerical Investigation of Leakage in Elastomeric O-rings

The estimation of leakage in elastomeric seals has been an ill-developed area due to a lack of research that attempts to model leakage through the seal and its interface. Some recent works, however, propose methods and models such as interface crack propagation analysis and porous media-based leakage models. In this work, we compare the performance of one such model, viz. the interface crack propagation technique, in describing leakage through O-rings. Leakage data from already conducted O-ring leakage experiments are used to verify the model’s performance. It is observed that the interface crack propagation analysis is able to make reasonably agreeable predictions about the threshold pressure, which are close to the experimental results.