Investigation into the Impact of n-Decane, Decalin, and Isoparaffinic Solvent on Elastomeric Sealing Materials

One of the crucial aspects in the adoption of alternative fuels (e.g., GtL fuel) in aviation industry is to investigate their compatibility with elastomeric materials used in current gas turbine engines. This study employed stress relaxation technique to investigate the effects of three solvents, namely, decalin (cycloparaffin), n-decane (normal paraffin), and ShellSol T solvent (isoparaffins) on O-rings made from different materials. Results indicated that both fluorosilicone and fluorocarbon O-rings showed excellent compatibility with all 25 blends tested. The stress relaxation characteristic of nitrile O-ring was highly dependent on the composition of the solvents; the more decalin (n-decane) is in the blend, the better (worse) its sealing performance becomes. Effects of the three solvents presented in the tests indicated aromatics are not the only compounds that can swell nitrile O-ring. It is also important to notice that although decalin presents good O-ring swelling ability, it does not mean all cycloparaffins have the same property. n-decane also showed certain O-ring swelling ability but its main effect during the polymer-fuel interaction process is to extract materials out of nitrile O-ring. Isoparaffins do not participate in the O-ring swelling process. They only extract polymer materials; however, its extraction ability is relatively weaker than n-decane.