Phi Drive at 37th International CAE Conference and Exhibition
Phi Drive will present at the 37th International CAE Conference and Exhibition taking place November 17-19, 2021 in Vicenza, Italy. This hybrid event will focus on the trends, technologies, issues, and how-to’s of sustainable and successful digital transformation and the key role that engineering simulation has to play in achieving the desired outcome.
Wednesday, November 17, 2021:FEM modelling of energized lip seals for oil and gas industry with Ing. Liborio Borsellino
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FEM modelling of energized lip seals for oil and gas industry
Speaker: Ing. Liborio Borsellino
“PTFE is a material which is widely implemented in the oil and gas industry for the production of energized seals and gaskets, thanks to its properties like low coefficient of friction and chemical inertness. Seals are used to prevent leakage and mechanical failure at the connection between valve and pipe, in a wide range of working conditions. In particular, seals are exposed by one side to the high pressure and temperature fluid and to the other side to the atmosphere condition. This difference is traduced to high load on the seal that may be subjected to excessive deformation and stress. Moreover, high pressure fluid may enlarge the gasket seat, increasing the risk of leakage, mechanical failure and partial extrusion. On the other side, it must be considered that the necessity to reduce encumbrance and costs by producing thinner and thinner seals without detriment to the safety of the application. A good way to reach this goal minimizing timing and prototyping cost is to use FEM analysis. Phi Drive, in collaboration with Esa srl, has developed a dedicated FEM model which reproduces the working condition of energized seals and allows determining the range of gasket seat width considering the worst working condition in terms of fluid pressure, temperature and construction tolerance. The model is based on Multilinear Isotropic Hardening to define PTFE stress-strain behavior and on variable friction contact to describe the interaction between the gasket and surrounding walls. For every seat width, the model computes different crucial indicators such as maximum stress, length of the extruded part of the seal and shearing force that may cause cutting of the gasket. As long as all indicators are below their limit values, adjusted for a proper safety factor, the energized seal is considered safe. Vice versa, if at least one of the indicators is beyond the limit the seal is not considered safe anymore. Our final article will talk in detail about this project, showing also pictures and graphics of the obtained results.”
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