The grooved lip effect on reciprocating hydraulic rod seal performances in transient condition: elastohydrodynamic lubrication

It is commonly known that the sealing performance of dynamic seals is significantly influenced by the surface finish. To reduce friction effect and leakage ratio, new generations of grooved lip or shaft have emerged, but only two computational models were performed up to now with a textured elastomeric lip: spiral groove in the axial direction or micro-cavities according to the circumferential direction. However, if the numerical results have confirmed the slight effect of the grooved lip on the rotary lip seal performances, it seems relevant to investigate the influence of such grooves on the reciprocating hydraulic rod seal behavior. Thus, the scope of this work is to perform a parametric study of the grooved lip throughout a one-dimensional elastohydrodynamic model by taking into account the elasticity of the lip and the shaft roughness. After confirming the validity of the current model, numerical simulations have been performed and compared with experiments. The effect of lip grooves on the hydraulic rod seal behavior in outstroke and instroke shaft motion has been underlined. Thereby, it is shown that the leakage and the average film thickness are sensible to both the depth and the density of the lip groove. Additionally, a slight effect of the pattern shape is observed on the friction force.