Fluid leakage in metallic seals

TL;DR

This paper investigates fluid leakage in metallic seals, combining experimental measurements with a theoretical model to understand how plastic deformation reduces leakage.

Contribution

It introduces an experimental setup and validates a plastic deformation-based model predicting leakage reduction in metallic seals.

Findings

Plastic deformation reduces leak-rate by approximately a factor of 8.

Experimental results align well with the theoretical model.

Surface roughness and elastic properties significantly influence leakage.

Abstract

Metallic seals are crucial machine elements in many important applications, e.g., in ultrahigh vacuum systems. Due to the high elastic modulus of metals, and the surface roughness which exists on all solid surfaces, if no plastic deformation would occur one expects in most cases large fluid flow channels between the contacting metallic bodies, and large fluid leakage. However, in most applications plastic deformation occurs, at least at the asperity level, which allows the surfaces to approach each other to such an extent that fluid leakage often can be neglected. In this study, we present an experimental set-up for studying the fluid leakage in metallic seals. We study the water leakage between a steel sphere and a steel body (seat) with a conical surface. The experimental results are found to be in good quantitative agreement with a (fitting-parameter-free) theoretical model. The theory predicts that the plastic deformations reduce the leak-rate by a factor $\approx 8$