A Case Study Review of Common Analytical Techniques Used in the Investigation of Seal Failures

Seals can fail in a wide variety of ways due to erosion, compression, chemical attack, thermal degradation, poor installation and improper material, to name a few.  Put another way, the nature of the failure relates to several potential factors including material selection, service conditions, part design and installation.  The role of the failure analyst is to consider all possible contributing factors by means of specific analytical techniques, thereby determining the root cause of failure.  The following paper will illustrate the use of different analytical methods which were employed to determine the nature and cause of specific seal failures.