Thermal stress development of liquid silicone rubber seal under temperature cycling

Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) is commonly used as gasket or seal material in many industrial applications. The temperature dependent material property of polymeric rubbers will result in stress relaxation/creep. The development of compressive stress in LSR between two clamping metal plates under temperature cycling is discussed in this paper. It is found that (a) in addition to stress relaxation, thermal expansion or contraction of the material contributes the most in the observed stress variation during temperature change, and (b) the stiffness of LSR appears to change according to temperature history.