Elastomeric Seal Stress Analysis Using Photoelastic Experimental Hybrid Method

Stress freezing is an important and powerful procedure in 3-dimensional experimental stress analysis using photoelasticity. The application of the stress freezing technique to extract stress components from loaded engineering structures has, however, declined over the years even though its principles are well established. This is attributed to huge costs arising from energy consumption during the process. In addition, significant time is needed to generate the desired information from isoclinic and isochromatic fringes. To overcome the limitations of stress freezing in photoelasticity and transform it into an economical device for stress analysis in an engineering environment, a new stress freezing cycle that lasts 5 hours is proposed. The proposed technique is used in several applications of elastomeric seals with different cross-sectional profiles to assess its suitability. It was found that reducing the cycle time can lead to huge energy savings without compromising the quality of the fringes. Moreover, the use of isochromatic only to extract stress components leads to a shorter processing time to achieve desirable information since the process of obtaining isoclinic data is involving. In this paper, results of stress analysis from stress frozen elastomeric seals with various cross-sections using the new stress freezing cycle are presented.

Special Issue: Selected Papers from Experimental Stress Analysis 2020

The contemporary way of living brings about increasing demands on materials used in our everyday lives [...]

Estimation of Correct Long-Seam Mismatch Using FEA to Compare the Measured Strain in a Non-Destructive Testing of a Pressurant Tank

This paper discusses the design criterion of a pressurant steel tank made of HSLA 15CDV6 and proof pressure test (PPT) as a non-destructive examination. An inverse Ramberg-Osgood relation is used to represent the stress-strain curve of the material. Elasto-plastic finite element analysis (FEA) has been carried out to examine the adequacy of the design. Experimental stress analysis has been carried out from the measured strains and found maximum effective stress is at LS joint (max. measured strain location). Strain obtained from FEA is compared reasonably well with the proof pressure test (PPT) data at most of the strain gauge locations except at one long-seam (LS) joint. So, to explain the causes of difference in strains near one LS, parametric studies have been performed in a 3D FEA with varying LS mismatch to find the correct mismatch as a reverse engineering problem. It is found that a mismatch value of 0.9 mm will give the required strain at PPT, which is measured only 0.4 mm. The failure pressure estimated through nonlinear FEA/analytical expressions found to meet the design.