Service lifetime prediction of nitrile butadiene rubber gaskets used in plate heat exchangers

Gasketed plate heat exchangers are characterized in a usual heat exchanger class. These systems employ elastomeric gaskets as the sealing element. Several conditions lead to oxidation and deterioration of these materials and their properties. In addition, the complex geometry of the gaskets and operation conditions may cause divergence in the expected aging behavior of the rubber. In light of this, this study aims to predict the service lifetime for nitrile butadiene rubber gaskets used in plate heat exchangers based on their geometry under thermo‐oxidative aging. These gaskets were evaluated by means of Shore A hardness, compression set (CS), and indentation modulus profile. Through aging‐sealing tests, an end‐of‐life criteria was determined concerning CS measurements and the service lifetime prediction was obtained by time–temperature superposition and WLF method. Diffusion‐limited oxidation effects were observed at high temperatures in postaging analysis and a non‐Arrhenius behavior was observed at 170°C. The value of 79% CS was obtained as end‐of‐life criteria from 60 to 140°C, ranged from 731 to 80 days, respectively, revealing an activation energy equivalent to 32.3 kJ mol−1. These results might support the maintenance planning control of gasketed plate heat exchangers. A service lifetime prediction based on sealing‐aging experiments for gaskets used in plate heat exchangers was proposed. As result, a 32.3 kJ mol−1 activation energy was obtained concerning thermal‐oxidative aging in a temperature range from 60 to 140°C, which follow 731 and 80 service days for nitrile butadiene rubber gaskets, respectively.