A Probabilistic Gasket Design Method

Gaskets are used to provide sealing in bolted joints that function under a wide range of assembly and loading conditions. Tolerance distributions of the gasket and flange components as well as assembly load variation will cause the gasket sealing stress to vary. In some cases, this variation is significant. In these cases, gasket designs based on nominal dimensions and loads may not function properly unless one or more engine test and design modification cycles are carried out.

A probabilistic technique has been developed to evaluate gasket designs under a range of assembly conditions. The output is a prediction of the statistical distribution of key dimensions such as compressed thickness or parameters such as percent compression. Analysis of these distributions can be used to determine the number of occurrences where a gasket design would be expected to function improperly. If the predicted failure rate is too high, design changes will be made and evaluated quickly under a realistic range of assembly conditions. Gasket development time and cost are reduced because designs are optimized through analysis under a full range of assembly conditions before the first prototype.