Abstract
Contact stresses in two elastic slabs and a sandwiched solid-metal flat gasket are studied to discuss the sealing behabior of the gasket. Assuming that the gasket is an elastic body, the three dimensional theory of elasticity is used to analyse the contact stresses and the deformations in the case where both sides of three laminated plates are compressed axisymmetrically under a local uniform pressure. By neglecting shearing stresses on the contact surfaces, an exact solution satisfying the remaining boundary conditions is obtained. Numerical calculations are carried out for various rigidities and thicknesses of the plates and the loading conditions. In order to investigate the usefulness of the theoretical analysis, the contact stress is measured experimentally by using pressure-sensitive pins attached to a circular plate. It is confirmed that the theoretical results agree well with the experimental ones.
