Effect of mounting misalignments on the tribological behaviour of elastomeric seals: Analytical predictive models and experimental validation

The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the effects of mounting eccentricities or shaft to bore misalignments on the tribological behaviour of elastomeric seals in an attempt to contribute to the lack of studies related to the life expectancy of seals.

To this aim, this Doctoral Thesis deals with the study of the effect of rod eccentricities on the contact pressure distribution on seals, the friction generated, the volume loss and the contact temperature distribution along elastomeric seals during operation combining analytical, numerical and experimental methods.