Permeation Behavior Study of the Typical Sealing Materials for High-pressure Gas Pipelines in Pure Helium and Crude Helium Conditions

WANG Yaxi; LI Tianlei; ZAN Linfeng; LI Ke; Yan Shiqi; LIU Hongwei

doi:10.7643/ issn.1672-9242.2025.11.015

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Equipment Environmental Engineering ›› 2025, Vol. 22 ›› Issue (11) : 143-150. DOI: 10.7643/ issn.1672-9242.2025.11.015

Permeation Behavior Study of the Typical Sealing Materials for High-pressure Gas Pipelines in Pure Helium and Crude Helium Conditions

WANG Yaxi¹, LI Tianlei¹, ZAN Linfeng¹, LI Ke¹, Yan Shiqi², LIU Hongwei^2,*

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Abstract

The work aims to explore the permeation behavior of two typical sealing materials for high-pressure gas transmission pipelines, i.e., nitrile rubber (NBR) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), in a helium environment, and to quantify the gas barrier performance of NBR and PTFE. The methods of differential pressure and chromatography were employed to investigate the permeation behavior of NBR and PTFE, in pure and crude helium gas environments under different temperature and pressure. The results indicated that the permeability of pure helium in NBR and PTFE materials increased with temperature. PTFE exhibited a permeability that was 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than that of NBR. Under the same pressure condition, the pure helium permeability of PTFE was one order of magnitude higher than that of NBR. In a crude helium environment containing hydrogen, the hydrogen permeability of both NBR and PTFE materials increased sharply while the helium permeability decreased as the hydrogen concentration increased. In an environment containing 3% crude helium at 75 ℃, the hydrogen permeability of NBR was 5.9 times higher than that of PTFE, but the helium permeability of PTFE was 4.9 times higher than that of NBR. Therefore, an increase in temperature and pressure generally leads to an increase of gas permeation in NRB and PTFE. NBR exhibits superior helium permeation resistance in pure and crude helium environments compared with PTFE. The barrier property of NBRagainst helium is better than that against hydrogen. In a crude helium environment, PTFE has better hydrogen barrier capacity than NBR.

Key words

helium pipeline / highpressure / sealing materials / rubber / polytetrafluoroethylene / helium permeability

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WANG Yaxi, LI Tianlei, ZAN Linfeng, LI Ke, Yan Shiqi, LIU Hongwei. Permeation Behavior Study of the Typical Sealing Materials for High-pressure Gas Pipelines in Pure Helium and Crude Helium Conditions[J]. Equipment Environmental Engineering. 2025, 22(11): 143-150 https://doi.org/10.7643/ issn.1672-9242.2025.11.015

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