Design and analysis of seals for extended service life

Space Station Freedom is being developed for a service life of up to thirty years. As a consequence, the design requirements for the seals to be used are unprecedented. Full scale testing to assure the selected seals can satisfy the design requirements are not feasible. As an alternative, a sub-scale test program has been developed by MSFC to calibrate the analysis tools to be used to certify the proposed design. This research has been conducted in support of the MSFC Integrated Seal Test Program. The ultimate objective of this research is to correlate analysis and test results to qualify the analytical tools, which in turn, are to be used to qualify the flight hardware. This research is totally focused on O-rings that are compressed by perpendicular clamping forces. In this type of seal the O-ring is clamped between the sealing surfaces by loads perpendicular to the circular cross section.