Abstract:An approach for analyzing and optimizing sealing mechanism of ball valve made of nitrile butadiene rubber(NBR) with finite element method was presented. The Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic material model was chosen to characterize NBR sealing, as it has been recommended in the similar applications. That is, NBR sealing was modeled as incompressible hyperelasticity, as well as the assumption of isotropic flow. The results illustrate the structural pressure and contact pressure on the contact surface, which shows that the NBR sealing mechanism is very suitable for sealing after dimension optimization.

Key words: nitrile butadiene rubber(NBR); elastomeric seal; finite element method; contact pressure