Modeling and experimental study of linear expansion characteristics of metallic rubber material in sealing structure

The application of porous characteristics of Metal Rubber (MR) material in sealing structure was studied in the paper. A sealing O-ring of MR was designed and tested in the sealing experimental setup. The linear expansion of MR material was studied. The sealing performance of MR O-ring was modeled and simulated considering the geometric dimension of the sealing slot and the cross section of rings. The transfer coefficient of pressure force from radial direction to axial direction was obtained and verified experimentally. The good agreement of the experimental results and the simulated results indicates the suitability of the calculated method for determining the sealing behavior with O-rings.