Paper presented at the 20th Annual South African Transport Conference 16 - 20 July 2001 "Meeting the transport challenges in Southern Africa", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.
This paper reflects the progress made on the research project ‘ Towards a Performance Related Seal Design Method’, initiated in 1998 at the University of Stellenbosch. The evolution of the new empirical test method of seal performance is discussed, with the summary of the first set of empirical performance tests of a full range of single seals at ambient temperature. The initiation theoretical model of seal behaviour using finite element methods is also presented.
From investigation (both literature search and original research), a comparison of empirical
and theoretical model parameters relating to all applicable performance aspects of the road
surfacing seal performance is able to be made. These parameters will be used in identifying
aspects for empirical research, and for inclusion in the development of the theoretical model of seal behaviour.
