Experimental Study on Performances of Carbon Seal and Finger Seal under High-speed and High-pressure Condition

Abstract

Carbon seal and finger seal are both advanced and used in aero-engine and gas turbine. Compared with the finger seal, the application of carbon seal is longer and its technology is more mature. But the finger seal also has excellent sealing performance, and it is much more economical than carbon seal. Based on a self-developed dynamic sealing test rig, the experimental studies on performances of carbon seal and finger seal under high-speed and high-pressure conditions are carried out in this paper, and the comparison on leakage and durability of the two seals is carried out in-depth to find the possibility that replacing carbon seal with finger seal, which can provide references for the selection of sealing types. The experimental results show that, under the same structural and operating conditions, the durability of carbon seal is better than that of the metal matrix finger seal, but the leakage of finger seal is smaller. Considering the manufacturing costs, the finger seal has potential to replace carbon seal at lower speed. Therefore, developing nonmetallic finger seal is an effective way to promote advanced sealing technology, which combines the flexible structure of finger seal with new material that has high thermal conductivity, low expansion, and low friction.