FEM Calculation and Evaluation of Sealing Performance in Oil Pan Wavy-Shaped Flange Gasketed Connections

Abstract

The oil pan wavy-shaped flange connection, while is a type of the box-shaped flange connections, has been used for the oil-pan in the vehicles such as cars and motorcycles to seal inner fluid. Though the light weight of these connections is important, the design method has not been established, since no research for evaluating the sealing performance of the wavy-shaped flange connections has been conducted. In this paper, The contact gasket stress distribution in a oil pan wavy-shaped flange connection under the internal pressure is examined taking into account a gasket hysteresis using finite element method (FEM) for estimating a location where a principal leakage occurs and for calculating the amount of leakage. Leakage tests were also conducted to validate the estimated results using an actual connection under internal pressure. The effects of flange shape and difference in types of inner fluid (gas / liquid) are examined on the contact gasket stress distributions and the sealing performance in the connections. It is found that the estimated amount of leakage is in a fairly good agreement with the measured results. Furthermore, discussion on the effect of the bolt spacing and the gasket width on the sealing performance are made.