On the dependence of the leak-rate of seals on the skewness of the surface height probability distribution

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates experimentally that the leak-rate of seals is highly sensitive to the skewness of the surface height distribution, with analysis aligning well with the critical-junction theory using the top-power spectrum.

Contribution

It provides new experimental evidence linking surface skewness to seal leak-rate and validates the critical-junction theory with spectral analysis.

Findings

Leak-rate depends on surface skewness

Top-power spectrum analysis improves theoretical-experimental agreement

Critical-junction theory effectively models leak-rate behavior

Abstract

Seals are extremely useful devices to prevent fluid leakage. We present experimental result which show that the leak-rate of seals depend sensitively on the skewness in the height probability distribution. The experimental data are analyzed using the critical-junction theory. We show that using the top-power spectrum result in good agreement between theory and experiment.