On the Use of Foam Rubber for Sealing Applications

Abstract

O-rings made from foam rubber are often used in sealing applications. Foam rubber have low (macroscopic) elastic modulus \(E_0\) resulting in a low nominal contact pressure when squeezed against a countersurface. In most cases the foam rubber is covered by a thin surface film with the effective elastic modulus \(E_1 > E_0\). We show that the nominal contact pressure may not be high enough for the contact area to percolate and the O-ring seal will leak. For the leakage calculations we use the Persson multiscale contact mechanics theory, and the (modified) Bruggeman effective medium theory for the fluid flow conductivity. The experimental input for the theory are surface roughness power spectrum, which was obtained from stylus topography measurements, and the elastic properties (\(E_0\) and \(E_1\)) of the rubber O-ring. As an application of this calculation method, we have used the preliminary as well as the final results of the laboratory gas tightness tests of the 136 New Small Wheel Micromegas Quadruplets performed at CERN, from February 2019 to May 2021, in the framework of the ATLAS Experiment upgrade. In the integration quality control, a novel method for gas tightness measurement, that we have called “Flow Rate Loss”, has been used as a baseline method.

Graphical Abstract