Effect of soft material creep on friction coefficient in face contacting mechanical seal

In this study, the creep characteristics of PTFE and its modified materials in the contacting mechanical seal assembly of the rotary joint working in deep-sea environment were compared and analyzed by using the finite element method, and the influence of creep on the friction coefficient of sealing surface was analyzed. Subsequently, the experimental results show that the friction coefficient of PTFE and its modified materials increases with the working time and the contact pressure on the sealing surface. When the contact pressure on the sealing surface is strong to a certain extent, the friction coefficient of the sealing face will rise sharply, and even seal failure will occur. PTFE modified materials can improve the creep resistance of materials to a certain extent, and the friction coefficient is relatively stable and slow to rise, but after loading, the friction coefficient is still higher than pure PTFE materials, and the friction performance is not as good as pure PTFE materials.