Investigation into the Mechanical Properties of Swimming-Goggle Gaskets After Prolonged Water Conditioning

This study combines experimental conditioning and numerical simulations to evaluate water-induced degradation of swimming-goggle gaskets and their mechanical response under representative loading conditions. Two gasket geometries were modeled, with the flatter profile serving as a reference and the more anatomically representative variant analyzed using finite-element analysis for neoprene, silicone, and SEBS materials of different Shore A hardness under prescribed periorbital pressure distributions. Commercial gaskets were conditioned by static immersion in chlorinated, distilled, and saline water for 20, 30, and 40 days, followed by measurements of Shore A hardness, breaking force, and elongation at break. The numerical results showed that gasket geometry substantially influences the predicted deformation patterns relevant to facial conformability, despite similar overall deformation magnitudes. Prolonged water exposure caused considerable material degradation. The breaking force decreases by approximately 48% after 20 days and by about 50% after 40 days of conditioning, irrespective of the environment. Elongation at break changed by approximately 3-4% in chlorinated and distilled water, whereas saline water caused reductions of approximately 11% after 20 days and 36% after 40 days. Additionally, the hardness of the material drops by about 10-13% after 20 days and subsequently remains almost constant. In the adopted cyclic loading-recovery simulation, silicone exhibited substantially lower residual deformation than SEBS. Overall, the results demonstrate the importance of material selection and geometry optimization and provide a comparative basis for further studies combining environmental conditioning with experimentally calibrated numerical models.