Finite Element Analysis provides data to predict how a seal product will operate underneath certain conditions and might help determine areas where the design can be improved without having to test a quantity of prototypes.
Here we clarify how our engineers use FEA to design optimal sealing solutions for our customer functions.
Why will we use Finite Element Analysis (FEA)?
Our engineers encounter many crucial sealing functions with complicating influences. Envelope dimension, housing limitations, shaft speeds, pressure/temperature ratings and chemical media are all utility parameters that we should contemplate when designing a seal.
In isolation, the impact of those application parameters is reasonably easy to foretell when designing a sealing solution. However, whenever you compound numerous these factors (whilst usually pushing a few of them to their upper limit when sealing) it is crucial to foretell what is going to occur in actual software conditions. Using FEA as a tool, our engineers can confidently design after which manufacture sturdy, reliable, and cost-effective engineered sealing solutions for our clients.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) permits us to know and quantify the effects of real-world conditions on a seal half or meeting. เกจวัดแรงดันดิจิตอล can be utilized to establish potential causes where sub-optimal sealing efficiency has been observed and can also be used to information the design of surrounding parts; particularly for products corresponding to diaphragms and boots where contact with adjacent elements may need to be prevented.
The software program also permits force knowledge to be extracted in order that compressive forces for static seals, and friction forces for dynamic seals may be precisely predicted to assist prospects in the ultimate design of their merchandise.
How will we use FEA?
Starting with a 2D or 3D model of the initial design concept, we apply the boundary circumstances and constraints equipped by a customer; these can embody pressure, force, temperatures, and any utilized displacements. A appropriate finite factor mesh is overlaid onto the seal design. This ensures that the areas of most interest return correct results. We can use larger mesh sizes in areas with less relevance (or lower levels of displacement) to minimise the computing time required to solve the model.
เกจวัดแรงดัน300psi are then assigned to the seal and hardware parts. Most sealing supplies are non-linear; the amount they deflect under a rise in force varies relying on how large that force is. This is unlike the straight-line relationship for most metals and rigid plastics. This complicates the material model and extends the processing time, but we use in-house tensile take a look at services to precisely produce the stress-strain materials models for our compounds to ensure the evaluation is as representative of real-world performance as possible.
What occurs with the FEA data?
The evaluation itself can take minutes or hours, depending on the complexity of the half and the vary of operating situations being modelled. Behind the scenes within the software, many tons of of 1000’s of differential equations are being solved.
The outcomes are analysed by our experienced seal designers to identify areas where the design may be optimised to match the precise requirements of the application. Examples of these necessities could embrace sealing at very low temperatures, a have to minimise friction levels with a dynamic seal or the seal may have to withstand excessive pressures with out extruding; whatever sealing system properties are most important to the client and the application.
Results for the finalised proposal can be offered to the customer as force/temperature/stress/time dashboards, numerical data and animations exhibiting how a seal performs all through the evaluation. This info can be used as validation data in the customer’s system design course of.
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 capable of optimise the design; not solely of the elastomer diaphragm itself, but also to propose modifications to the hardware components that interfaced with it to increase the available area for the diaphragm. This stored materials stress ranges low to take away any possibility of fatigue failure of the diaphragm over the lifetime of the valve.
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