People evaluate the sealing force response of materials to try to estimate when leakage might occur. This is often based on correlated relationships between sealing force responses and actual sealing performance. This paper intends to try to provide a more direct relationship between sealing force and leakage and to show what kinds of factors might affect this relationship.
This study aims to provide data and test approaches that measure sealing force over the full temperature range, from high temperatures where seals age, to low temperatures where seals leak. In many cases, people assume that the seal's ability to prevent leakage at low temperature is based on the Tg or TR10 of the material, but this is only useful for new materials. As materials age, their ability to seal at low temperature changes along with their sealing force response curves.
This paper also will discuss sealing configurations and the relationship between the sealing forces developed upon compression for static seals and leakage. It also will note the effect of changes in both the magnitude and rate of deformation, as well as temperature on the sealing force response and leakage. All of these factors will be integrated into concepts that can be used to try and predict performance of static seals in real world applications.