Simulating the sealing performance of the double rubber cylinder assembly in an intelligent pipeline isolation tool

Abstract

Intelligent pipeline isolation tools (IPITs) are widely used for pipeline maintenance and repair. Therefore, authors mainly study the sealing performance of double rubber cylinder IPIT. This study first analyzed the material and geometric properties of the rubber cylinders in an IPIT to establish a numerical finite element model of cylinder mechanical behavior. The influence of the cylinder hardness, camber angle, and short-side length on the sealing performance was subsequently investigated by systematically altering the established model according to the control variable method. Next, the response surface methodology was employed to evaluate the change in model sealing performance according to the coupled action of multiple rubber cylinder parameters and identify their optimal values.