Performance Testing of Elastic Metal Seals Under Static and Dynamic Load

Due to several advantages such as insensitivity against ionizing radiation, elevated temperatures and a favourable ageing behaviour elastic metal seals are sometimes preferred to elastomeric seals especially for long term storage of radioactive materials. In normal transport or intermediate storage the sealing system is subjected only to pure or nearly pure static mechanical load. But under severe accident conditions t he sealing system of a cask could be considerably deformed which results in large variations in stresses acting on the contact surfaces of the seal . In order to assess the suitability of elastic metal 0-rings with a spring core the following data were evaluated experimentally