Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Contact Pressure Existence in Sealing Structure

Sealing is one of the important components in the automotive and aerospace industry. The primary function of the lip seal is to protect contamination and retaining the lubricant. This investigation relates to a study of contact pressure existence on sealing structure between there mating region. Sealing for steering intermediate shaft should sustain sliding motion between shaft and seal as well as protection of lubricant from contamination and retention. Contact pressure analysis of Steering intermediate shaft with hyper elastic rubber seal is done at static condition using ABAQUS. Experiments were also conducted to check contact pressure between seal and shaft by using Fuji-pressure film sensor. The result from CAE analysis was compared with experimental data with 75% of the correlation with respect to CAE. This analysis of contact pressure helps to support on giving enough interference between seal and shaft which satisfies the need of sealing for an intermediate shaft.