Investigating the performance of square ring under uniform squeeze rate and internal pressure

Abstract

Transportation and controlling fluid flow under high pressures in pumps, valves, boilers and heat exchangers is a common exercise in the industries. The main challenge, however that has confronted designers and manufacturers of pumps and valves along with those responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of such types of machinery is managing leakages at the positions where the seals are used. One fundamental feature of seal packing is the ability of the seal to ’flow’ into the groove spaces and effectively block fluid from passing through them. The square ring has shown good ‘flow’ behavior in addition to offering low contact stresses. This research seeks to investigate the performance of the square ring. The Hertz contact theory and photoelastic experimental hybrid method are used in the study of the performance of the square ring under a squeeze rate of 20 % and varying internal pressure. It was observed that while increasing the applied internal pressure, the deformation length and angle increased due to the high stresses produced by the applied pressure. Additionally, was initiated at an internal pressure of 0.98 MPa.