Design and characteristics of fabric rubber sealing based on microchannel model

In this paper, both the mechanical behavior and the leakage characteristics of fabric rubber composite in aircraft door are investigated in detail based on microchannel model, which consider the influences of the microchannel shape, the elastic modulus, and the contact stress on the gas leakage rate of the fabric rubber composite. First, the explicit expression of the gas leakage rate at the contact interface of the fabric rubber composite is established based on the contact interface properties. Second, the explicit dimensionless function of the gas leakage rate at the contact interface of the rubber seal is proposed by means of dimensional analysis, finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. Finally, the influences of the gas pressure on the gas leakage rate are studied under the same pressure difference at both sides of the fabric rubber composite. The predicted results of the gas leakage rate are in good agreement with the experimental results, which provide an effective model for evaluating the gas leakage characteristics at the contact interface of the fabric rubber composite under any gas pressure and compressive displacement.