Finite Element Analysis provides information to foretell how a seal product will operate beneath sure circumstances and may help establish areas the place the design can be improved with out having to test multiple prototypes.
Here we explain how our engineers use FEA to design optimal sealing options for our customer purposes.
Why do we use Finite Element Analysis (FEA)?
Our engineers encounter many crucial sealing applications with complicating influences. Envelope size, housing limitations, shaft speeds, pressure/temperature scores and chemical media are all software parameters that we should contemplate when designing a seal.
In isolation, the influence of those application parameters is fairly simple to predict when designing a sealing answer. However, whenever you compound a quantity of these elements (whilst typically pushing some of them to their higher restrict when sealing) it is essential to foretell what is going to occur in actual utility circumstances. Using FEA as a device, our engineers can confidently design and then manufacture robust, dependable, and cost-effective engineered sealing solutions for our prospects.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) permits us to grasp and quantify the effects of real-world circumstances on a seal part or assembly. It can be used to determine potential causes the place sub-optimal sealing performance has been noticed and may also be used to information the design of surrounding components; especially for merchandise similar to diaphragms and boots the place contact with adjoining elements might must be avoided.
The software also permits force knowledge to be extracted so that compressive forces for static seals, and friction forces for dynamic seals may be precisely predicted to assist customers within the ultimate design of their products.
How do we use FEA?
Starting with a 2D or 3D mannequin of the initial design idea, we apply the boundary circumstances and constraints provided by a customer; these can include strain, drive, temperatures, and any applied displacements. Expires is overlaid onto the seal design. This ensures that the areas of most interest return accurate outcomes. We can use bigger mesh sizes in areas with less relevance (or lower levels of displacement) to minimise the computing time required to unravel the mannequin.
Material properties are then assigned to the seal and hardware components. Most sealing supplies are non-linear; the quantity they deflect underneath a rise in pressure varies depending on how giant that drive is. This is in contrast to the straight-line relationship for most metals and inflexible plastics. This complicates the material model and extends the processing time, but we use in-house tensile take a look at amenities to accurately produce the stress-strain material fashions for our compounds to ensure the analysis is as consultant of real-world efficiency as attainable.
What occurs with the FEA data?
The analysis itself can take minutes or hours, depending on the complexity of the half and the range of working circumstances being modelled. Behind the scenes in the software program, many lots of of hundreds of differential equations are being solved.
The results are analysed by our experienced seal designers to determine areas where the design could be optimised to match the particular necessities of the application. Examples of these necessities could embody sealing at very low temperatures, a must minimise friction ranges with a dynamic seal or the seal might have to withstand high pressures without extruding; whatever sealing system properties are most important to the client and the applying.
Results for the finalised proposal may be offered to the client as force/temperature/stress/time dashboards, numerical data and animations displaying how a seal performs all through the analysis. This data can be utilized as validation knowledge in the customer’s system design process.
An example of FEA
Faced with very tight packaging constraints, this customer requested a diaphragm part for a valve utility. By utilizing FEA, we were able to optimise the design; not solely of the elastomer diaphragm itself, but also to suggest modifications to the hardware parts that interfaced with it to extend the out there house for the diaphragm. This saved materials stress ranges low to remove any possibility of fatigue failure of the diaphragm over the life of the valve.
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