Elastomeric seals used in oil and gas production have to maintain sealing during the life of the wells, which can span 20-30 years. Long-term exposure of elastomeric seals to severe oil and gas downhole environment inevitably leads to degradation of elastomers. The degradation process involves not only chemical chain scission, but also additional crosslinking of the polymer network.
The objective of this research is to identify a mechanical constitutive model that can account for the effects of both chain scission and additional crosslinking during aging, investigate how to incorporate the identified constitutive model in commercial finite element analysis software, develop test methods to calibrate the model, and run tests and FEA to verify the model and developed FEA methods for modeling long-term performance of elastomeric seals.