gopiethy Voune 95(1992), 1, 83-88 OR Analysis of Elastomeric O-Ring Seals in Compression Using the Finite Element Method® TTZHAK GREEN (Member, STLE) and CAPEL ENGLISH Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia ‘The need for « methodology to determine the siffness character. istics of elastomeric seals with complex geomelry has prompled an investigation using a commercially available finite clement code. ‘Axial and radial compression of O-rings, as well asthe influence of retraining grooves and friction, are investigated. Axisyrametric analyses are performed, and their resulls are compared with those oblained by other researchers who assumed lane strain conditions. ‘The differences in the results ofthe axisymmetric and plane strain loading conditions increase withthe level af compression, except {for one loading ease, The methad of reduced integration is shown {oeffectvely handle the problem of high lcaized hydrostatic stresses, hick ae especially enhanced in confined geometries, and to provide ‘eccurate vests. Stiffuess characterises of O-ring seals having a range of geometric and material properties are given in a nondi- ‘mensional form. This ferm allous for general modeling of the O-ring stiffness as a force and a spring at compression (ise de formation) levels up to 32 percent. INTRODUCTION ‘Many mechanical systems depend upon the use of elas- tomeric O-rings for sealing. They are economical and ef fective over a broad range of service conditions and surface finishes, ‘The stiffness and stress relationships associated with the compression of elastomeric O-ring seals have been examined by several researchers. Because elastomers are neatly incompressible, strain energy density functions were developed to describe the large elastic deformations that clastomers commonly undergo. ‘The earliest work in this area is that by Mooney (1) in his theory of large elastic deformations of iotropic materials, later complemented by Rivlin (2). Treloar (3) performed a variety of extension and compression tests which supported ) the theory proposed by Mooney (2). Rivin (4) provided a Pretanted at he 46th Annual Westing In Montreal, Quebec, Cenada ‘Api 20-May 2, 1991 Final manuscript spproved February 13, 1981, 83 summary of research in this area of continuum mechanics. Other relevant research is presented in works by Ogden 6), Peng and Landel (6), and Kao and Razgunas (7). Using the theories advanced by some of the aforemen- tioned researchers, Gent and Lindley (8) examined the compression characteristics of bonded rubber blocks. While this research is not directly applicable to O-rings, Lindley (O)developed a simple theoretical treatment for the stiffness of laterally unrestrained toroidal rubber rings under axial ‘compression. As the first to assume plane strain conditions, hie extended his theory to obtain a force deflection re~ lationship. Later, Lindley (10), (11) offered a nondimensional force- deflection relationship for an O-ring FE aig = 1280" + 508" a Fis the load, D and d are the nominal and wire diameters, respectively (see Fig. 1), # the modulus of elasticity, and 8 js the compression (the axial compression divided by the wire diameter), Lindley (10) derived the frst term analyt- ically assuming plane strain conditions, then added the sec- ‘ond term as an empirical correction to accommodate high compression levels (12). Equation [1] agreed fairly well with experimental results up to 25 percent compression, George, Strozzi and Rich (12) modeled O-rings in un- restrained axial loading assuming plane strain. Their results agreed well with Lindley’s predictions and experimental results by George and Williams. These will also be compared to the numerical results in this work. Dragoni and Stroz (13) performed a plane strain FEM analysis of an O-ring seal restrained by a rectangular groove. The lateral walls of the groove were defined to be tangent to the undeformed O-ring, and loading was applied until the deformed O-ring filled the entire groove. Others have measured stiffness and damping of O-ring seals in the radial mode (14) and in the axial-sheat-tvi mode (15), but better understanding of static properties is needed before dynamic behavior can be properly analyzed.ct 1. Green ano G, Excuistt pee eee “Qt 1B etn Elastomeric O-ring seals ave typically constrained in grooves and compressed five to 25 percent. Their complex geo- metrics and large deformations suit the finite element method, Numerical results can be verified for simple cases where experimental data is available, giving assurance of their va- lidity for more complicated geometries. METHOD Five common loading conditions described in Fig. 2 cluding combinations of lubricated-fricionless, unlubri- cated, axial, radial, restrained, and unrestrained loading) will be examined, Note that Fig. 2(b) represents two cases of axial unrestrained loading: Inbricated and unlubricated ‘The restraining grooves are selected similarly to those i Ref. (23) such that the groove walls are tangent to the un. deformed O-ring wire. ‘The major objective of this work i to determine the static stiffness characteristics of hyperelastc O-ring seals using & commercially available finite element code, (16). The non- linear finite element formulation used is based upon the Mooney-Rivlin constitutive equ fons as implemented in ee, ig, 2—(0) Unresralnod cada foaing (6) Unestrained exe loading (2) Restrained radal loading. (0) Restrained ail fosing. element STIF84 (76). Thisallows two empirically.determined constants and a Poisson’s ratio close to 0.5 to model nearly incompressible behavior. ‘The plan of this work is to examine the theory, to sur ‘mount its nonlinear difficulties, and to present results for axisymmetric loading. Consideration is given to mesh se- lection, convergence, numerical integration, and data ma- nipulation. The methodology is applicable to other seal gco- rmetries such as X-rings or Ustings. MATERIAL DESCRIPTION A hyperclastic material can be described by a strain en- exgy density function, W, whose derivative with respect to a strain component determines the corresponding stress ‘component. Three principal strain invariants, J, 1, and 11, of the Cauchy-Green deformation tensor can be formed, see Refs. (1)-(7). While the invariants will not be defined here, they are described in terms of the principal stretch ratio, X IFthe material is isotropic, the strain energy density, {sa function of these strain invariants, W= W(LJLH2). The Mooney-Rivlin (M~ R) strain energy density funetion is the ‘most extensively used and is implemented in the finite ele ment code (16) as W = A(r-8) + BQT-3) + O(P—1) + Deut ~ 1 2 ‘Associated with this constitutive equation are four con- stants, A, B, C, and D, which describe a particular bypere- Jastic material being considered. Only A and B are inde pendent, where ( and D are functions of A and Band Poisson's ratio. As the material approachesincompressibility (.e,,»= 0.8), invariant I approaches unity leaving only the first two terms in Eq, [2]. If B=, the material is said to be neo-Hookean, The constants, A and B, describe the stress- deflection response for the type of elastomer under consid~ eration, A is accountable for the stiffness of the material, while B precipitates a gradual increase in slope, as will be ‘evident from the following discussion. ‘The principle stretch ratio, is defined for uniaxial ex- tension as @ where e isthe strain and fis the deformation. ‘The Gauchy stress, 7, is defined as the partial derivative of W with respect to the strain andl is given by Kao and Razgunas (?) as (A? — AXA + BIA) io] ‘The constant and B can be determined by eurve-ting the results from a uniaxial est to Eq, [4], and they should bbe non-negative (17). From Ea, [4] itis event that Cauchy's stress isa nonlinear function of the stretch. A modulus of linear elasticity, £, relates tothe values of the constants A and B at relatively small stretches as follows Th = Ee w‘Analysis of Elastomerie O-Ring Seals Combining Eqs. {3} and (5) yields ) T= BO? -» 16) ‘Taking the deriv at k= (the point where linear elat dominant) yietds of P'with respect to 2 and evaluating y is assumed pre- a io Hence, an expression for # as a function of A and 2 is obtained as B= 6(A +B) = 6A(1 + BIA) (9) ‘Therefore, by choosing a value for £, A can be obtained. for the neo-Hlookean case (B= 0), For B>0 itis possible to vary the ratio of B/A, while maintaining a constant E, to ‘exarnine non-neo-Hookean behavior. ‘Numerical techniques for solving finite element models ‘of incompressible materials are complicated by the Fact that Poisson's ratio, v, is equal to or close to 0.5. The work by George et al. (18) provides details of modeling large strain axisymmetric and plane strain problems and describes how reduced integration allowed suecessful modeling of nearly incompressible materials. This method handies the numer- ical displacement locking that occurs most frequently where ich materialsare subjected to high hydrostatiestresses such, as the O-ring compression cases investigated here. NUMERICAL METHODOLOGY Details of preprocessing {geometryand mesh generation), solution (convergence considerations), postprocessing, and data manipulation appear in English (19). These are sum- marized 3s follows. Preprocossing Phase Geometry ond Mesh Gonerati TBecaise of its axial and radial syromeiry, an O-ring can be modeled as axisyinmetric tvo-dimensional (ee Fig. 1) “The nominal diameter, D, was held constant forall cases. “To investigate the effects of curvature, the aspect ratio, dD, vas varied from one-eighth to one, Due to symmetry about the radial axis only one hal ofthe cross-section was mod led. A wo dimensional model applies also fora plane st cate; curvature, however, is immaterial ‘A first order hyperelastic quadrilateral element was cho- sen for both the plane stain and axisymmetric problems. (See comparison by English (19) between fxs order trian- gular and fist order quadsilateral elements) It was also found (29) that doubling the mesh size to 360 quadrilateral ression Using the Finite Flement Method 85 Y Ma, (0) Uarstratna act oxy. (© iesstatned ratat Yeang. (4) Sestraines vot lod. Fig. $—Detntion of bounder condone end eppleddlepacements, {@) Untestained axel oacing. (©) Resttlned axial foeding. {6) Unrestained redial toding {) Reatelned redial oacing, clements caused less than two percent change at the highest compression. The results presented herein were obtained using the 360 element model. Boundary Condition yp elements were used at contact boundaries (Fig. 9). 1ecase of unlubricated-unrestrained axisymmetric axial loading, a coefficient of frietion of 0.9 was used to prevent slippage at the contact boundary. In all other cases fri tionless gap clements were used. Ten load steps were ap- plied to the unrestrained cases, cotalling 82 percent compres- son. Only seven load steps were possible in restrained cases, totalling 22-4 percent compression, Material Properties ‘The material was assumed homogeneous and isotropic. For the results to be normalized with respect to modulus ‘of elasticity, 8.5 Mpa (510 psi) wascchosen as typical for com- ‘mon rubbers. The Mooney-Rivi B/A=0 to 1, while maintaining £ constant ( (A +B)=8.5 MPa). For the majority of the cases v = 0.49 ‘was used, but for comparison, several cases were examined with v = 0.495 and 0.499, COMPRESSION RESULTS “The final deformations for the five loading cases of Fig. 2 are presented in Fig. 4. Dashed fines represent the unde- Formed geometry. As can be seen, the axial loading of the lubricated (frictionless) unrestrained O-ring causes it to translate radially. In the restrained cases the O-ring essen ally ils up the groove. Figure 5 shows a comparison of contact stress profiles at 82 percent compression for unrestrained lubricated axial loading. The reduced integration method yields much lower ‘contact stresses (therefore, lower strain energy) suggesting more accurate results, see also examples in Ref. (78). All further solutions used reduced integration, Results for normalized reaction force (FindDE, Fig. 6) show that varying B/A while holding & constant has very85 1. Gaeen ano ©. ExeList eg aT ‘e Tata Werte MT toads. tend Si rte ada. tn 3 Sra a3 aT Tain. railed Bi RSS. aa sep refed ATT Tay Fig. 4—Detormed ve. undetormed O-Ring geometries. a2 ey esas om Nommalized Contact Suess, $,/ 06 No Reduced 08 Integration “06 fa” 02” 0” 02 aa” 06 ‘Normalized Coordinate of Wir Cros Section, X/d Fig. 5—Comparison ofthe normalized contac stress profes at 32 per ‘cont compression. tle impact on the response. English (19) validated this behavior also in uniaxial loading by plotting Cauchy’s stress, Eq, (4), as a Function of stretch with BY/A as a parameter. ‘The plot shows that for leformations up to 32 percent the differences in Cauchy's stress are very small. Thus, O-rings subjected to strains up to about 30 percent can be treated as neo-Hookean, English (19) found that a vaviation of Poisson's ratio from 0.49 10 0.495 had a negligible effect on the calculated re- sponse of all cases. However, increasing Poisson's ratio to 0.409 resulted in the divergence of the solution for re- strained loadings, even atthe first lod step. [is suspected that the formulation in which the nearly incompressible strain energy density function is implemented in (/6) has reached its mit, Dragoni and Strozzi (13) reported varia- tion of the peak contact stress as a function of Poisson's ratio and successful application of Poisson's ratio up to 0.4999 for their code. ‘The effect of curvature was investigated by solving a set of axisymmetric problems where the nominal diameter re- ‘mained constant at D=76.2 mm (8 inches) but the diameter Normalized Foros, F/#DME a2 24 Percent Compression Fig. 6—Tho oe of various ratios ofthe MAR constants, Bid, for the ‘ose af ‘ana loading, aspect ratio, iD, varied from 1/8 to 1 in increments of 1/8, No significant differences can be detected in the resulis in Fig. 7for the various aspect ratios. The experimental results in Ref. (15) by and large conform with this finding, For the remainder of the work here, all models use the diameter aspect ratio of 1/8, ie. a wire diameter of 9.58 mm (0.375 inches). Since curvature has no effect on the resul symmetric loading, it is of interest to compare these results with those of plane strain loading. It should be pointed out that using a plane strain model implies that, because cur- Yature is immaterial, axial and radial loading responses are indistinguishable, ‘The first comparison (Fig 8) is made forall unrestrained cases, ise. 1) Inbricated-unrestrained axial loading, 2) unlubricated-unrestrained axial loading, 3) mrestrained- radial loading, and 4) unrestrained-plane strain loading. ‘This plot cleaiy shows thatthe lubricated (frictionless) O-ring and the unubricated O-ring (friction coefficient 0.9) be- have quite differently under axial loading conditions. The ‘mean diameter of the well lubricated O-ring increases as the load is applied, while the cross-section becomes smaller to maintain constant volume. This case results inthe lowest stiffness. The plane strain case results are similar only to @ Lindley 0.2] Aspect Ratio: + arate o arbtsa A arb=tra x a/D=3/4 vast ‘Normalized Force, F/xDdE iz Percent Compression Fig.7—Thotfoct of various aspect ratios di, forthe casootlibicated- ‘unestained axisymmetric axial compression,Nomnalived Fore, E/aDIE Analysis of Elastomeric O-Ring Seals in Compression Using the Finite Element Method 87 Poisson's ratio = 0.49 AKTAL LUBRICATED AXTAL UNLUBRICATED RADIAL PLANE STRALY @ a Polcent Compression Fig. &-Normalize foree v. parcent compression forall unresianed those of unlubricated axial loading, whi gives the highest stiffness. Figure 9 provides a comparison between present and pre- vious results for the cases of unrestrained loading. ‘These indicate that Lindley’s Eq, [1] underestimates the load- deflection characteristics ofall but the well lubricated O-ring. Note the good agreement of the results for unlubricated- ‘unrestrained axial loading, and therefore, plane strain load- ng, with Stroza’s numerical results (Strozzi used a plane strain model). George’s and Williams’ experimental results also agree well with these, The good agreement of the re- sults for these particular cases with previous work, validates the current method, and, therefore, the results for other cases, Hence, the differences between the solutions for the various cases in Fig. 9 implies that O-rings cannot always be described by the plane strain assumption For all loading. cases. Results for the three restrained cases are provided in Fig. 10. Axial, radial and plane strain results agree well up to about 10 percent compression only. As for previous cases of unrestrained loading (Figs. 8 and 9) it can be seen that the radial response is greater than either the axial response or the plane strain response. Generally, restrained loading response is greater than that of unrestrained loading. e radial loading nouey ANALYTICAL © coRRECTION AaaL vstventoxTED xray wnRrexreD GEORGE & VIDMEANS EXERREHENTAL SsrR0227 KORERICAL RADIAL ‘Normalized Force, F/aDJE, 2 28 Percent Compression lg, @—Compalson with oxisting results forthe cate of unrestralned Tondng. Br AKTSYrmETRIC RADIAL 4 AKISHHMETREC AXIAL © eUANE STRAT 02 [Nonmalized Fore, F/*DEE. 72 Percent Compression 24 Fig, 10-Resuls for all tres casos of resralned loading. STIFFNESS. Expressions for nondimensional force versus compres- sion were calculated by curve, fitting the numerical data to ‘a two term exponential similar to Eq, {1} = at! + oat F EO SADE =sld (x being the dimensional compres: coefficients and exponents are given in Table 1. The stiff ness, K, is defined as aF _ andDB apn & AMEE) — wave Se ave 0) Dimensionless stiffness is then, x yo ot = Re a eth + ca 3} Hence, the dimensionless stiffness, K, can be determined for all cases using the coefficients in Table 1 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ‘Numerical analysis difficulties associated with large clastic deformation of elastomeric O-rings using a commercial finite element code have been described. No justification ‘was found for using more terms than required by the neo- Hookean representation of material behavior. Numerical instabilities developed when Poisson's ratio approached 0.5, especially when restrained O-rings were analyzed. ‘The method of reduced integration appears to give more real- istic solutions in such cases with high localized hydrostatic stresses "The validity of the plane strain assumption was explored, and it agreed well for the unlubricated-unrestrained axial loading case, but notas well forthe other cases. t was found that the resulls are affected by the formulation (.e., plane strain or axisymmetric constitutive equations), rather than by the aspect ratio or curvature. Consequently, since most88 I. GREEN AND G. ENGLISH ‘ease as plane strain, the later is an unnecessary assumption. Boundary conditions were found to have a major role on the responses. This is evident from the different behaviors of lubricated vs. unlubricated, axials. radial, and restrained ‘us unrestrained loadings, Generalized analytical expressions for load-deflection, and stiffness, were presented in Eqs. [10] and [12], respectively. ‘The coefficients in these expressions were determined by curve-fitting the numerical data for seven types of loading (able 1). ‘The aforementioned expressions were made nondimen= sional with respect to modulus of elasticity, #. It is well known (20), however, that & isa function of various effects, ‘ovo of which are time (relaxation) and frequency (strain rate). A proper value of & should accordingly be used for ‘meaningful load-deflection prediction, In static loading, a relaxed value would be appropriate. In dynamic loading, # is a function of the strain rate or loading frequency, and is, represented by a complex number. The real partis refer- enced (20) as the storage modulus (ie. stiffness) and the imagincry part as the loss modulus (i.c., damping). Using the complex modulus, 2, will result, respectively, in a force due to material stiffness and damping. ACKNOWLEDGMENT ‘The authors gratefully acknowledge the support given to this work by the National Science Foundation REU Program under grant number MSM-8619190. REFERENCES (1) Mooney, M.,"A Theory of Large Rls Deformation? Jew of Appt Pips, 1 pp 582-502 1040, "Tante 1—Least-Squates Conrriciotrs FoR 1HE CALCULATION OF NONDIMENSIONAL STIFF, Tere oF Loaoine a b a ‘Axial Unresteained Lubricated o.racoz [125282 | 00250 | 3.38757 Axial Unrestrained Unlubricated | 0.97975 | 1.20202 | 6.93373 | 3.55885 Radia! 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