Stern tube seals under static condition: A multi-scale contact modeling approach

A thermomechanical model of a stern tube seal has been developed by paying particular attention to the contact between the seal and the shaft. The finite element method is used to capture the macroscopic behavior of the seal while roughness was evaluated at a microscopic level by applying the boundary element method. The seal material was independently characterized, and the results were used to calibrate the material constitutive model used for the seal. Two specialized setups were built to validate the model in terms of radial force, contact width, and percolation threshold. By combining the two models, the strains, stresses, temperature, and the limits of static tightness can be predicted at high accuracy for a wide range of operating conditions.