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The oil sump sealing performance analysis has been carried out through the analysis of the joint formed by the sump flange, the engine block flange, the gasket, and the bolts. Oil sump flange bending plays a major role in affecting the gasket sealing performance, it is modeled using 3D shell element and reduced to a substructure stiffness matrix for the sealing surface. This reduced stiffness matrix along with the stiffness of the gasket and bolt are used in a 2D plate program to provide detailed gasket pressure profile on the sealing surface. The effect of sump wall height, corner bend, boundary conditions have been studied in detail to make sure that the lowest sealing pressure on the entire flange is at least equal to or larger than the predicted value. The effect of bolt spacing on the sealing pressure has also been studied, the results of which can be used as a guideline for bolt spacing specification in new engine development.

The gasket cross section plays an important role in the resultant total load, contact stress, and stiffness of a gasket constructed from elastomeric materials. One standard approach to design is based on using a shape factor in conjunction with a simple stiffness calculation. This approach can produce reasonable results for simple cross-sections under small deformation. In many situations, the complexity of the shape and relatively large deformation prevents this approach from predicting the behavior of the gasket with acceptable accuracy. Experimental approaches and finite element methods are effective at characterizing the stiffness under these conditions. In this paper, a parameter study of the results of a sequence of finite element analyses were used to construct a model of standard gasket cross sections, specifically a triangular beaded cross section. The resulting formula can be used to quickly determine the gasket load-deflection with good accuracy.