On Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:20:38 -0600, in a place far, far away, Joe
Strout made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:

In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

- How can I estimate the leak rate through the seal?

Depends on design. I see no reason it couldn't be designed to zero
leak.

That's a bold thought -- my understanding is that pressure seals are
assumed to always leak at some rate, and that it was just a matter of
how expensive you want to make it to get the leak rate lower.

Well, zero is a small number. Let's say negligible. How often do you
you have to fill your car tires (which contain double atmospheric
pressure)?

It also depends on what you're trying to keep from leaking and what
temperature it's at (e.g., O-rings and hot gases, or hydrogen or
helium, which will seemingly tunnel through anything). But we're just
talking about an atmosphere of air here.