Fatigue Mechanical Characteristics and Experimental Study of O-Shaped Metal Rubber Seals with Large Ring Diameter Ratio

Metal rubber is a kind of cumulative damage material, because it has formed a very complex spatial network structure, the metal wires occlude each other, extrusion, sliding friction. In addition to the internal wire, the metal rubber seal has an outer covering, so the conventional metal fatigue theory can not be applied. In this paper, energy consumption ΔW, loss factor η and damage factor D were selected as fatigue damage evaluation indexes, and fatigue life test of O-shaped metal rubber seal with large ring diameter ratio was carried out through fatigue damage test. The effects of loading amplitude, excitation frequency and porosity on fatigue life and wear of metal rubber were studied by control variable method. The results showed that the hysteresis loop of the metal rubber seal was obviously “willow leaf”, and the energy consumption capacity decreased before 150 000 vibration cycles. The stiffness of metal rubber seal increased with the decrease of porosity, and the fatigue damage of test sample increased with the decrease of porosity. The increase of loading amplitude aggravated the fatigue wear of metal rubber seals in varying degrees. This study provided data on fatigue life performance research of O-shaped metal rubber seals, and also certain reference for the prediction of fatigue life of metal rubber seals in practical engineering applications.