Contact pressures developed in the mating surface-bead interface provide seal integrity. From the finite-element modeling perspective, the bead is usually modeled with a hyperelastic material and the mating surfaces are assumed to be rigid.

Loads are generally applied as pressure/displacement on the moving mating surface, as temperature on the seal bead, and sometimes as fluid pressure in the seal cavity. The loads cause progressive deformation, as seen in Figure 2.1: Schematic of a Static Elastomeric Seal Assembly.

Although a moving mating part exists, the analysis is considered to be quasi-static; that is, velocity of the moving mating part is very small, constant, and does not change direction.