Abstract
The pressure loads acting on the teeth of a labyrinth seal are usually not uniform. Sometimes, one tooth would take almost half of the total pressure difference, which is detrimental to the teeth’s working life and sealing effect. Therefore, the estimation of maximum pressure load on the teeth is helpful to design a sound structure of labyrinth seal. This article analyzes the influence of teeth number, boundary condition, clearances, and structure parameters on maximum pressure loads of labyrinth seal teeth in low pressure ratio conditions ( PR≤ 0.5, PR = Pout/ Pin). Both the computational fluid dynamics model and test results show that teeth number and pressure load are main factors influencing the maximum pressure load on teeth. Finally, a fitting equation is given to estimate the maximum pressure load on labyrinth seal teeth and its results are in good agreement with the computational fluid dynamics model.
Highlights
The labyrinth seals are important annular gas seals in turbomachines.[1,2,3] As traditional annular gas seals, their major advantages are that they can be used for higher pressure gradients compared with other seals, like brush seals and finger seals.[4,5] Labyrinth seal is most typically used as impeller seals, shaft seals, and balance piston seals in centrifugal compressors
The first tooth carries about 46% of total pressure load for PR = 0.28 (PR = Pout/Pin). They thought that the large Mach number of the flow in last clearance was the main reason for the last tooth to carry the highest pressure load in low pressure ratio conditions.[21]
This article studies the influence of teeth number, boundary condition, and clearances on the maximum pressure load of labyrinth teeth for the pressure ratio range 0.2–0.5
Summary
The labyrinth seals are important annular gas seals in turbomachines.[1,2,3] As traditional annular gas seals, their major advantages are that they can be used for higher pressure gradients compared with other seals, like brush seals and finger seals.[4,5] Labyrinth seal is most typically used as impeller seals, shaft seals, and balance piston seals in centrifugal compressors. Keywords Labyrinth seal, pressure loads on the teeth, teeth number, pressure ratio, clearances Their results showed that the maximum pressure load occurred on the first tooth and remained constant on the other teeth.
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