Study on Simulation Analysis Method of Elastomer Reciprocating Seals at Low Temperature

This paper addresses the issue of the disconnection between material performance and sealing performance in the sealing industry. Taking the low temperature retraction (TR) parameter as the research object, a method for evaluating sealing performance by the equivalent of TR is proposed based on a typical piston rod reciprocating sealing system. By coupling multiple physical fields such as fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, and contact mechanics, a hybrid lubrication simulation model of O-rings during the TR process was established. The quantitative prediction of key parameters such as leakage rate and friction force is also achieved. Based on the premise of ensuring the resilience of the rubber material, the simulation results show that the lower is the temperature, the better is the sealing performance. The bench test of the low temperature performance of O-rings is also carried out, in which the leakage rate and friction force under low temperature conditions were measured. The bench test results are relatively consistent with the simulation prediction, with an error range of 0.66% to 5.94% for the leakage rate and 1.96% to 7.75% for the friction force, verifying that the established TR evaluation model has good reliability.