On the Use of Foam Rubber for Sealing Applications

O-rings made from foam rubber are often used in sealing applications. Foam rubber have low (macroscopic) elastic modulus E 0 resulting in a low nominal contact pressure when squeezed against a countersurface. In most cases the foam rubber is covered by a thin surface film with the effective elastic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTribology letters Vol. 72; no. 2; p. 39
Main Authors Alexopoulos, T., Gazis, E. N., Maltezos, S., Koutelieris, G., Persson, B. N. J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.06.2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Chemistry and Materials Science
Contact pressure
Corrosion and Coatings
Effective medium theory
Elastic properties
Fluid flow
Foam rubber
Gas tightness
Materials Science
Mathematical analysis
Methodology
Modulus of elasticity
Nanotechnology
O ring seals
Physical Chemistry
Quality control
Rubber
Sealing
Styli
Surface roughness
Surfaces and Interfaces
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
Thin Films
Tribology
Rubber O-ring
Micromegas quadruplets
Foam rubber
Effective medium theory
Contact mechanics
Gas leak test method
New small wheel
Critical junction theory
ATLAS experiment
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Summary:O-rings made from foam rubber are often used in sealing applications. Foam rubber have low (macroscopic) elastic modulus E 0 resulting in a low nominal contact pressure when squeezed against a countersurface. In most cases the foam rubber is covered by a thin surface film with the effective elastic modulus E 1 > E 0 . We show that the nominal contact pressure may not be high enough for the contact area to percolate and the O-ring seal will leak. For the leakage calculations we use the Persson multiscale contact mechanics theory, and the (modified) Bruggeman effective medium theory for the fluid flow conductivity. The experimental input for the theory are surface roughness power spectrum, which was obtained from stylus topography measurements, and the elastic properties ( E 0 and E 1 ) of the rubber O-ring. As an application of this calculation method, we have used the preliminary as well as the final results of the laboratory gas tightness tests of the 136 New Small Wheel Micromegas Quadruplets performed at CERN, from February 2019 to May 2021, in the framework of the ATLAS Experiment upgrade. In the integration quality control, a novel method for gas tightness measurement, that we have called “Flow Rate Loss”, has been used as a baseline method. Graphical Abstract
ISSN:1023-8883
1573-2711
DOI:10.1007/s11249-024-01845-5