Abstract
Spiral groove dry gas seal (S-DGS), the most widely used DGS in the world, encounters the problem of high leakage rate and inferior film stability when used in high-speed machinery equipment, which could not be well solved by optimization of geometrical parameters and molded line of spiral groove. A new type of bionic cluster spiral groove DGS (CS-DGS) is proved to have superior film stability than S-DGS at the condition of high-speed and low-pressure numerically. A bionic CS-DGS is experimentally investigated and compared with common S-DGS in order to provide evidence for theoretical study. The film thickness and leakage rate of both bionic spiral groove and common spiral groove DGS are measured and compared with each other and with theoretical values under different closing force at the condition of static pressure, high-speed and low-pressure, and the film stiffness and stiffness-leakage ratio of these two face seals are derived by the relationship between closing force and film thickness at the steady state. Experimental results agree well with the theory that the leakage and stiffness of bionic CS-DGS are superior to that of common S-DGS under the condition of high-speed and low-pressure, with the decreasing amplitude of 20% to 40% and the growth amplitude of 20%, respectively. The opening performance and stiffness characteristics of bionic CS-DGS are inferior to that of common S-DGS when rotation speed equals to 0 r/min. The proposed research provides a new method to measure the axis film stiffness of DGS, and validates the superior performance of bionic CS-DGS at the condition of high-speed and low-pressure experimentally.
Highlights
Dry gas seals with unidirectional spiral groove (S-DGS) have encountered numerous applications in medium and high speed rotating equipment because of their low friction, long life time, such as centrifugal compressors, pumps and blowers [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The abrupt failure of Spiral groove dry gas seal (S-DGS) occurs from time to time when used in high speed machinery with big vibration for the weak capacity of resisting disturbance of gas film between the two faces
The results show that the opening force and film stiffness of AS-DGS is larger than that of the common S-DGS at the condition of low-speed and high-pressure, while the leakage is a little larger
Summary
Dry gas seals with unidirectional spiral groove (S-DGS) have encountered numerous applications in medium and high speed rotating equipment because of their low friction, long life time, such as centrifugal compressors, pumps and blowers [1,2,3,4,5,6]. In order to maximize the film stiffness of dry gas seal, and keep a low leakage rate at the same time, a great deal of numerical and experimental study on groove structure. Dresser-Rand Corporation presented a patented pattern of short grooves in combination with the longer grooves to provide excellent lift-off effect and optimum gas film stiffness at low speed as well as high speed. Despite that there are only few researchers pay attention to the experiment of the sealing performance test of DGS, most of the researchers only focus on the numerical simulation and analysis of groove structure and geometry parameters optimization as the subject to improve the gas film stiffness and reduce the fluid leakage of DGS
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