Effects of Fuels on the Physical Properties of Nitrile Rubber O-Rings

摘要

The effects were studied of containing nitrile O-rings with a variety of fuels and fuel blends. Properties (tensile strength, elongation, swelling) depended markedly on the aromatic content. When O-rings were cycled between fuels of low and high aromatic content, these properties took up values characteristic of the fuel in which the sample was currently immersed. Rubber samples were exposed to a commercial fuel (gas oil side stream) of high (greater than 40%) aromatics level and to a Jet A-1 fuel, initially meeting aromatics specifications, whose aromatics content had been artificially increased by addition of reagent chemicals to the same final level as the gas oil side stream. Effects on physical properties (tensile strength, swell, 200% modulus) were considerably greater for the Jet A-1 with added aromatics than for the gas oil side stream.