Numerical Analysis on Boundary and Flow Regime of Magnetic Fluid in the Sealing Clearance With a Rotation Shaft

Abstract

The magnetic fluid seal is one of the best known and widely used technical applications of magnetic fluid. However, the boundary and the flow regime with the rotation shaft cannot be observed by the experiment method. This paper presents a novel numerical simulation method to obtain the boundary and the velocity of the fluid in seals. The magnetic field of the seal is solved by the finite-element method, and the Navier–Stokes equations of the magnetic fluid based on the influence of magnetic force are solved by the finite-volume method. The two-phase flow is solved by the volume of fluid method. The seal capacities of the rectangle tooth and the trapezoid tooth with different rotation velocities are obtained. The result shows that the seal capacity decreases with the increase in the rotation velocity.