Prediction of the Contact Behavior of Stepseals: Experimental and Numerical Investigations

The contact behavior of a stepseal affects its reliability and remaining life. In this study, experimental and numerical analyses were performed to investigate the contact behavior of a typical stepseal. Its dimensions and material properties were also tested. The Mooney–Rivlin hyperelastic model was used to fit the stress–strain data of the rubber. A static contact pressure of 105.1 MPa was obtained using the Fujifilm pressure measurement film. A finite element model of a stepseal with reasonable element sizes was established. A comparison between the experimental results and finite element (FE) predictions shows that the finite element method underpredicts the maximum static contact pressure and contact length. For the maximum contact pressure, the test results were approximately 30.4% higher than those of the FE predictions.