Thermal performances of the wave-tilt-dam seal in a reactor coolant pump for sustainable development

Abstract

Mechanical seal plays an important role in the reactor coolant pump for the sustainability of nuclear power stations. A three-dimensional numerical model of a wave-tilt-dam seal was developed and Navier-Stokes equation for viscous incompressible fluids was adopted. The thermal performances of temperature distribution and maximum temperature difference as affected by the base film thickness (h0, 1–10 μm), taper (β, 50–1000 μrad), dam width ratio (ε, 0–0.9), wave amplitude ratio (α, 0.05–0.95), and wave number (k, 4–36) were analyzed and compared. It was observed that the lowest temperatures for different structural parameters in the seal were 323.15 K, and the highest temperatures in the seal were between 323.15 and 724.68 K. The highest temperature rapidly dropped as h0 increased; it slowly increased and then increased rapidly when α increased with a critical value of 0.70; and it fluctuated when β, ε, or k increased. The combination of geometric parameters to keep the maximum temperature difference within 90 K was h0 of 3–10 μm, β of 600–1000 μrad, ε of 0–0.35, α of 0.05–0.70, and k of 12–16.