The influence of real gas effects on the performance of supercritical CO2 dry gas seals

Abstract

The current work investigates dry gas seals operation with supercritical CO2 (sCO2) at two operating conditions using CFD. One close and one far from the critical point. At the operating condition far from the critical point a maximum change of 1.7% in pressure, 0.4% in temperature and 1.1% in density are observed. Contrary, closer to the critical point a maximum change of 6.5% in pressure, 6.7% in temperature and 39.5% in density are observed. These changes also influence opening force and leakage rate. Far from the critical point the maximum changes are 0.7% and 3.1%, whereas close to the critical point maximum changes of 3.4% and 10.3% are observed. The centrifugal effect plays an important role when operating with dense gases.