Stress—Strain Fields in Compressed Elastomeric Seals and Their Extension to Fracture Mechanics
Abstract The modeling of an elastomer in terms of hyperelastic material has been discussed. The peculiarities of the finite element method when applied to nearly incompressible materials have been underlined. The mechanical analysis of various uncracked elastomeric seals has been treated with particular regard to possible crack initiation. The theoretical aspects of fracture mechanics applied to elastomers have been discussed, and the validity of the J-integral approach has been checked against experiments. The J-integral has been computed numerically in cracked O-ring seals for various fractional compressions and crack lengths. The numerical stress field has been compared to the experimental findings. The influence of the crack length on the contact pressure profile has been considered. Various difficulties still exist in modeling efficiently the elastomeric materials and in developing suitable numerical tools. Nevertheless, it is believed that statistical predictions on the debasement in the sealing characteristics due to viscoelastic effects and to crack propagation will become shortly feasible.