Accelerated testing of Shaft Seals as components with complex failure modes

Abstract

Radial Shaft Seals (RSS) are widely used in all fields of mechanical engineering for sealing of rotating elements. Up to now there has been no possibility to include Radial Shaft Seals adequately into the lifetime calculation of mechanical systems. In this paper the difficulties in accelerated life testing of RSS are presented and discussed. First of all, this involves the consideration of the RSS only as one part of a complex sealing system. Then, the influences on reliability and lifetime are specified and a definition of a failure itself is given. The main part identifies the major failure modes, the failure causes and the effects of these failures on the sealing system. All those points listed above result in a definition of testing parameters and first accelerated life tests of RSS. Finally an outlook based on the results of the first tests is given.