Thermal oxidation ageing effects on silicone rubber sealing performance

Silicone sealing material, because of their excellence performance, are gradually replacing traditional materials and widely used in various sealing devices. They are known for their aging and degradation problems, stockpile reliability problems and service life, and hence they became a focus of attention. In this paper, thermal oxidation aging test, XPS and NMR analysis are used to analyze the aging mechanism of silicone rubber. Then the FEM contact model before aging and after aging is developed to study the influence of aging on sealing performance. The results show that hardness and compression set increases with aging of silicone rubber; more surface roughness and aging can lead to a degradation of sealing performance. It helps staff to estimate the sealing performance of silicone rubber in further research. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.