Considering the importance of the mechanical properties of rubber-like material for the water-seal design, different Rivlin models were applied to process experimental data of uniaxial tension test, uniaxial compression test and pure shear test in order to describe the hyper-elastic properties for the material overall. The nonlinear calculation for the free extension of pressure-filled telescopic water seal was done by using the fitting parameters from the models. The comparison between the calculated results and test results was carried out. The results showed that the second rank and five terms Rivlin model was of good application in project and fit well in describing the hyper-elastic properties of rubber-like material. It was more precise to use it in nonlinear finite element calculation, which provided a good reference for the design and calculation of gate water seal structure.
