Abstract
Steam turbines, like other turbo-engines, require sealing elements, which prevent the working fluid escape outside of the turbine, causing power losses and environmental contamination. In this work the Flow Field in Spiral Grooves of Steam Turbine Dry Seals was determined using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The dry seal considered in this study has spiral grooves on the moving face. The flow field was computed for two different spiral groove inlet angle configurations (13 and 15 degrees). Additionally the opening force caused by the effect of the interaction of the rotational speed of the grooves and flow field was determined. Among the results it was found that the opening force generated on the seal walls is proportional to the opening angle of the spiral grooves. The spiral groove inlet angle of 15° generated major opening force.
Highlights
Dry seals are used in turbomachines, which can be found in the power generation industry and in the aeronautic industry
Other advantages of the dry seals are: the turbine working fluid performs lubrication on the seal faces, the working fluid is free from contamination, and there is no contact between the seal faces under operating conditions so there is a minimal friction with the working fluid [9]
The flow field inside the dry seals and the opening forces generated during the dry seal operation were calculated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Summary
Dry seals are used in turbomachines, which can be found in the power generation industry and in the aeronautic industry. For the design of a sealing system that uses dry gas seal, the basic problem is to determine the flow field in order to know the opening force that can be provided by the seal in rotation at the turbine operation speed. With this opening force, the mechanical design of the seal could be proposed so that the faces of the dry seal have to open only 1 to 5 microns. Chen X. et al resolved compressible Reynolds equation to compute tracking properties of dry gas seal using different groove geometries [8]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
