ANALYTICAL AND NUMERICAL SOLUTIONS OF METAL HIGH-PRESSURE WAVE-RING GASKET AND COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The paper deals with experimental investigations of a set of metal wave-ring gaskets of different thickness and different assembly interference. The gaskets were examined under assembly conditions, i.e. pressed in their seats with no operating pressure applied. The electric resistance wire strain gauges were used to measure the circumferential and axial strains at the inner surface of the gaskets. The traces of contact at the working surface of the gaskets were measured after disassembly the gaskets from their seats. The material tests were carried out to determine the real mechanical properties of materials applied for the gaskets and the seats. The results of experiment were verified by FEM calculations and compared with the analytical approach based on the simplified shell model proposed for the gasket.