Finite Element Analysis offers knowledge to foretell how a seal product will operate beneath certain circumstances and might help establish areas where the design may be improved with out having to check multiple prototypes.
Here we explain how our engineers use FEA to design optimum sealing options for our buyer applications.
Why do we use Finite Element Analysis (FEA)?
Our engineers encounter many critical sealing functions with complicating influences. Envelope size, housing limitations, shaft speeds, pressure/temperature rankings and chemical media are all utility parameters that we should think about when designing a seal.
In isolation, the influence of these software parameters is fairly straightforward to predict when designing a sealing answer. However, whenever you compound a quantity of these components (whilst often pushing a few of them to their higher limit when sealing) it is crucial to predict what is going to occur in actual software situations. Using ไดอะแฟรม as a tool, our engineers can confidently design after which manufacture robust, dependable, and cost-effective engineered sealing options for our clients.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) allows us to know and quantify the results of real-world situations 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 guide the design of surrounding components; especially for merchandise corresponding to diaphragms and boots the place contact with adjacent parts might have to be averted.
The software additionally permits force information to be extracted in order that compressive forces for static seals, and friction forces for dynamic seals could be accurately predicted to help clients in the final design of their merchandise.
How can we use FEA?
Starting with a 2D or 3D mannequin of the preliminary design concept, we apply the boundary conditions and constraints provided by a buyer; these can embody pressure, force, temperatures, and any applied displacements. A appropriate finite element mesh is overlaid onto the seal design. This ensures that the areas of most interest return correct results. We can use bigger mesh sizes in areas with less relevance (or lower ranges of displacement) to minimise the computing time required to solve the mannequin.
Material properties are then assigned to the seal and hardware elements. Most sealing supplies are non-linear; the quantity they deflect beneath an increase in force varies relying on how large that pressure is. This is in distinction to the straight-line relationship for most metals and rigid plastics. This complicates the fabric mannequin and extends the processing time, but we use in-house tensile take a look at amenities to accurately produce the stress-strain materials models for our compounds to ensure the analysis is as representative of real-world performance as possible.
What happens with the FEA data?
The analysis itself can take minutes or hours, depending on the complexity of the part and the range of operating situations being modelled. Behind the scenes in the software, many hundreds of 1000’s of differential equations are being solved.
The outcomes are analysed by our skilled seal designers to determine areas where the design may be optimised to match the precise requirements of the appliance. Examples of these necessities could include sealing at very low temperatures, a have to minimise friction levels with a dynamic seal or the seal might have to withstand excessive pressures without extruding; whatever sealing system properties are most essential to the customer and the application.
Results for the finalised proposal may be offered to the customer as force/temperature/stress/time dashboards, numerical information and animations exhibiting how a seal performs throughout the evaluation. pressure gauge octa can be used as validation data in the customer’s system design process.
An instance of FEA
Faced with very tight packaging constraints, this buyer requested a diaphragm element for a valve application. By using FEA, we had been capable of optimise the design; not only of the elastomer diaphragm itself, but in addition to suggest modifications to the hardware elements that interfaced with it to increase the available area for the diaphragm. This kept materials stress levels low to take away any possibility of fatigue failure of the diaphragm over the lifetime of the valve.
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