On the dependence of the leak-rate of seals on the skewness of the surface height probability distribution

Abstract

Seals are extremely useful devices to prevent fluid leakage. We present experimental result which show that the leak-rate of seals depend sensitively on the skewness in the height probability distribution. The experimental data are analyzed using the critical-junction theory. We show that using the top-power spectrum result in good agreement between theory and experiment.

5 pages, 9 figures