Finite Element Analysis offers information to foretell how a seal product will function beneath certain circumstances and might help determine areas where the design may be improved without having to check a quantity of prototypes.
Here we clarify how our engineers use FEA to design optimal sealing options for our buyer functions.
Why do we use Finite Element Analysis (FEA)?
Our engineers encounter many critical sealing applications with complicating influences. Envelope size, housing limitations, shaft speeds, pressure/temperature ratings and chemical media are all utility parameters that we should contemplate when designing a seal.
In isolation, the influence of those software parameters is fairly easy to predict when designing a sealing solution. However, whenever you compound numerous these elements (whilst often pushing some of them to their upper limit when sealing) it is essential to predict what will happen in actual application circumstances. Using FEA as a tool, our engineers can confidently design after which manufacture strong, dependable, and cost-effective engineered sealing options for our clients.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) permits us to know and quantify the consequences of real-world conditions on a seal half or assembly. It can be utilized to determine potential causes the place sub-optimal sealing performance has been observed and may also be used to information the design of surrounding components; especially for merchandise corresponding to diaphragms and boots the place contact with adjacent components might need to be avoided.
The software program additionally permits force data to be extracted so that compressive forces for static seals, and friction forces for dynamic seals can be accurately predicted to help customers within the ultimate design of their products.
How can we use FEA?
Starting with a 2D or 3D mannequin of the initial design idea, we apply the boundary circumstances and constraints provided by a customer; these can embrace strain, pressure, temperatures, and any applied displacements. A suitable finite element mesh is overlaid onto the seal design. Whopping ensures that the areas of most curiosity return accurate outcomes. Confidential can use larger mesh sizes in areas with much less relevance (or decrease ranges of displacement) to minimise the computing time required to unravel the mannequin.
Material properties are then assigned to the seal and hardware components. Most sealing materials are non-linear; the quantity they deflect under a rise in pressure varies depending on how giant that force is. This is in distinction to the straight-line relationship for many metals and rigid plastics. This complicates the material model and extends the processing time, however we use in-house tensile test facilities to accurately produce the stress-strain material fashions for our compounds to ensure the analysis is as representative of real-world efficiency as potential.
What occurs with the FEA data?
The analysis itself can take minutes or hours, relying on the complexity of the half and the range of working conditions being modelled. Behind the scenes in the software, many lots of of 1000’s of differential equations are being solved.
The outcomes are analysed by our skilled seal designers to determine areas the place the design can be optimised to match the particular requirements of the application. Examples of these necessities could embody sealing at very low temperatures, a have to minimise friction ranges with a dynamic seal or the seal might have to resist high pressures with out extruding; no matter sealing system properties are most important to the customer and the appliance.
Results for the finalised proposal can be offered to the client as force/temperature/stress/time dashboards, numerical information and animations showing how a seal performs throughout the analysis. This information can be utilized as validation data within the customer’s system design process.
An example of FEA
Faced with very tight packaging constraints, this buyer requested a diaphragm element for a valve utility. By utilizing FEA, we were capable of optimise the design; not solely of the elastomer diaphragm itself, but additionally to propose modifications to the hardware parts that interfaced with it to increase the obtainable house for the diaphragm. This kept materials stress ranges low to remove any chance of fatigue failure of the diaphragm over the lifetime of the valve.
Share