Simulation Techniques for Liquid Gasket Sealing Performance Prediction

In the automotive industry, silicon adhesive has become increasingly popular due to its benefits in ease of assembly and cost savings associated with material and manufacturing processes. Due to the demand to reduce time and costs in the development phase of the project, it is critical to choose the right gasket material, and a suitable flange design as early as possible in the design process. In order to achieve stringent emission standards such as Real Driving Emission (RDE) and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) norms, a better sealing performance is an essential parameter. Various types of liquid gaskets such as silicon rubber based Room Temperature Vulcanizing (RTV) sealants and thermoset plastic based Anaerobic sealants are widely used in an Internal Combustion engine. They are commonly used for the components such as oil sump, bedplate, gearbox housings, etc. Traditional simulation methods could not capture the exact failure modes of the liquid sealants. Hence there is a need for a better understanding of the factors controlling a joint's sealing performance under realistic service conditions. This paper describes a methodology to predict the sealing performance of liquid sealants at a very detailed level. An innovative 2 Dimensional (2D) and 3 Dimensional (3D) simulation approach is used for micro level modelling of the joint. In the first phase of the simulation, a 2D simulation approach is employed for predicting micro level joint behaviours under various initial conditions. In the second phase, a 3D approach is applied to find the assembly level joining surface behavior. Final sealing performance is evaluated by combining the 2D and 3D simulation results. Experimental validation for the most commonly used liquid gaskets were carried out to establish the correlation of this process. It has been found that the predicted sealing results are well correlated with the experimental findings.