Performance Analysis of a Pressurized Assembly with a Reinforced O-ring

In industrial facilities, leaks from manufacturing equipment represent uncontrolled fugitive emissions. The most critical components in this equipment are the seals. Several types of seals are used and the most popular are flat seals and O-rings. These seals are subject to high clamping loads and pressures. The failure of the seals could seriously affect the safety of people, and also the environment by the leakage of toxic products. In this work, the analysis of the mechanical and leakage behavior of the O-ring seal reinforced by a metal core and a conventional one when placed either between two plates or in a rectangular groove is presented. Four finite element models, developed using Ansys software, are used to study the behavior of the assemblies in the four cases when clamping load and fluid pressure are applied. This study shows that the introduction of a metal core inside an elastomer O-ring improves the sealing in pressurized installations. The comparison between the assembly without and with a groove shows that the installation of the two studied seals in a groove can protect them against the high stresses which can cause their deterioration and thus increase the probability of failure.