Design and Optimization of Lip Seal for Air Braking System

Reliable sealing solutions are extremely important in commercial vehicle industry because sealing failures can cause vehicle breakdown, damage of equipment or even accident, incurring expenses that are substantially higher than the costs of just replacing the damaged seals. Consequently, new seal designs must be experimentally verified and validated before they can be implemented. In this study, Mooney - Rivlin hyper elastic material model is used to simulate the sealing behavior during dynamic conditions. The seal under study is a large diameter lip seal made of Neoprene® rubber (NBR)

A finite element model to study the response of the seal under dynamic conditions was developed. The analysis took into account the mating parts dimensions and the lip seal parameters. Three designs were proposed and verified. The seal design is optimized using non-linear FEA and validated. Results include contact pressure, deflection and strain experienced by the seal during actuation.