TY  - JOUR
AU  - Persson, B. N. J.
AU  - Yang, C.
TI  - Theory of the leak-rate of seals
JO  - Journal of physics / Condensed matter
VL  - 20
SN  - 0953-8984
CY  - Bristol
PB  - IOP Publ.
M1  - PreJuSER-2769
SP  - 315011
PY  - 2008
N1  - Record converted from VDB: 12.11.2012
AB  - Seals are extremely useful devices to prevent fluid leakage. However, the exact mechanism of roughness induced leakage is not well understood. We present a theory of the leak-rate of seals, which is based on percolation theory and a recently developed contact mechanics theory. We study both static and dynamic seals. We present molecular dynamics results which show that when two elastic solids with randomly rough surfaces are squeezed together, as a function of increasing magnification or decreasing squeezing pressure, a non-contact channel will percolate when the (relative) projected contact area, A/A(0), is of the order 0.4, in accordance with percolation theory. We suggest a simple experiment which can be used to test the theory.
KW  - J (WoSType)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000257759600028
DO  - DOI:10.1088/0953-8984/20/31/315011
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/2769
ER  -