Performance degradation of metal rubber seal under high temperature and pressure

Seals are crucial components of mechanical devices; seal degradation limits the performance of mechanical systems and even causes accidents. In this work, we used a complex sealing test system to conduct long-term leakage experiments of metal rubber seals as a function of temperature and pressure. The leakage rate was the performance degradation indicator. We developed an experimental performance degradation pattern by linear regression. We combined the leakage pattern of metal rubber seals with leakage theory and found that the increase in the equivalent leakage channel height is the immediate reason for metal rubber seal performance degradation, itself fundamentally attributable to the time-dependent plasticity caused by material creep.