Browsing by Subject "Labyrinth seal"
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Item A novel isolation curtain to reduce turbine ingress heating and an advanced model for honeycomb labyrinth seals(Texas A&M University, 2006-08-16) Choi, Dong ChunA combination of 3-D and 2-D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling as well as experimental testing of the labyrinth seal with hexagonal honeycomb cells on the stator wall was performed. For the 3-D and 2-D CFD models, the hexagonal honeycomb structure was modeled using the concept of the baffle (zero-thickness wall) and the simplified 2-D fin, respectively. The 3-D model showed that even a small axial change of the tooth (or honeycomb wall) location, or a small circumferential change of the honeycomb wall location significantly affected the flow patterns and leakage characteristics especially for small tooth tip clearance. Also, the local details of the flow field were investigated. The seven basic procedural steps to develop a 2-D axisymmetric honeycomb labyrinth seal leakage model were shown. Clearly demonstrated for varying test conditions was the 2-D model capability to predict the 3-D honeycomb labyrinth flow that had been measured at different operating conditions from that used in developing the 2-D model. Specifically, the 2-D model showed very close agreement with measurements. In addition, the 2-D model greatly reduced the computer resource requirement needed to obtain a solution of the 3-D honeycomb labyrinth seal leakage. The novel and advanced strategy to reduce the turbine ingress heating, and thus the coolant requirement, by injecting a ??coolant isolation curtain?? was developed numerically using a 3-D CFD model. The coolant isolation curtain was applied under the nozzle guide vane platform for the forward cavity of a turbine stage. Specifically, the isolation curtain serves to isolate the hot mainstream gas from the turbine outer region. The effect of the geometry change, the outer cavity axial gap clearance, the circumferential location of the injection curtain slot and the injection fluid angle on the ingress heating was investigated. Adding the chamfer to the baseline design gave a similar or higher maximum temperature T* max than did the baseline design without chamfer, but implementation of the injection curtain slot reduced substantially T* max of the outer region. In addition, a more desirable uniform adiabatic wall temperature distribution along the outer rotor and stator surfaces was observed due to the presence of the isolation curtain.Item A NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF WINDBACK SEALS(2010-01-16) Lim, Chae H.Windback seals work similarly to labyrinth seals except for the effect of helical groove. These seals are essentially a tooth on stator or tooth on rotor labyrinth seal where the grooves are a continuous helical cut like a thread. Windback seals are used in centrifugal gas compressor to keep oil out of the gas face seal area. These face seals cannot be contaminated by oil. A purge gas is applied to the seal to help force the oil back into the bearing area. The windback seal should be designed to prevent any oil contamination into the supply plenum and to reduce purge gas leakage. The CFD simulations have been performed with the effect of clearance, tooth width, cavity shape, shaft rotation, eccentricity, and tooth location on the seal leakage performance and the flow field inside the seal. The leakage flow rate increases with increasing the pressure differential, rotor speed, radial clearance, cavity size, and shaft diameter and with decreasing the tooth width. The eccentricity has a minimal effect for the windback seal. From oil simulations, the windback seal with 25% rotor eccentricity has some of the journal bearing action and drives back flow into the gas plenum. However the windback seal can be used to force the oil back into the bearing side before starting the compressor by applying a purge gas flow since the positive axial velocity inside the cavity is larger than the negative axial velocity. m A Rw cav & / ? is constant for varying shaft rotation since the leakage flow rate for the windback seal increases linearly as the the rotor speed increases. The leakage flow rate for the windback seal increases as the groove size increases due to the pumping action of the windback seal. A windback seal design based upon the numerical simulations that minimize gas leakage and help prevent gas face seal oil contamination was optimized. The windback seal has two leakage flow paths. Since the leakage flow rate under teeth of windback seals is the same as for a similar geometry labyrinth seal, the flow under the teeth can be predicted by two-dimensional labyrinth seal analysis. An empirical model for the leakage rate through the cavity has been developed which fits the data with a standard deviation of 0.12.Item Labyrinth Seal Leakage Analysis(2012-10-19) Inam, OrcunAnnular seals are devices used in turbomachinery to avoid flow losses which reduce efficiency. The dynamic stability of the machine is also improved by the seal. Thus, it is an important subject to understand the flow behavior through the seal. Straight through triangular labyrinth seals are one of the most commonly used types of non-contacting annular seals. The energy dissipation through these seals is achieved by a series of teeth and cavities. As the flow passes above each tooth, a portion of its pressure energy is converted into kinetic energy. A portion of this kinetic energy is dissipated through turbulence-viscosity interaction in the cavity that follows. Moreover, some portion of the pressure energy is also lost through viscosity of the fluid. This research aims to understand the effects of flow parameters and seal geometry on these losses. This will make it possible to estimate the mass flow leakage through the seal. ANSYS Fluent is used to simulate the flow through the seal. The effect of seal geometry is studied by varying clearance, pitch, tooth height, tooth width and upstream side angle. It was found that, amongst other geometrical parameters, tooth clearance and pitch has a strong influence on carryover coefficient. Smaller values of c/s have better kinetic energy dissipation in the cavity. Carryover coefficient is also found to be a function of the Reynolds number and shaft speed. Discharge coefficient of the seal presents the overall efficiency while carryover coefficient only shows the cavity performance. Discharge coefficient is also found to be a strong function of tooth clearance, pitch, Reynolds number and shaft speed. Remaining parameters have smaller effects. It was observed that the discharge coefficient of first tooth is always lower than those of intermediate teeth. The compressibility effects are presented by using an expansion factor which is the ratio of compressible flow discharge coefficient to incompressible flow discharge coefficient. It was found that the expansion factor is fairly independent of geometrical parameters but a strong function of flow parameters. Considering the effects of seal geometry and flow parameters on carryover coefficient, discharge coefficient and expansion factor, the seal geometry is optimized to increase the kinetic energy dissipation and pressure head loss which in turn will reduce the mass flow leakage.Item Windback seal design for gas compressors: a numerical and experimental study(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) Al-Ghasem, Adnan MahmoudSeals are considered one of the important flow elements of a turbomachinery device. Traditional labyrinth seals have proven their performance functionality by reducing leakage rates. Significant improvements on labyrinth seal functionality were obtained through altering the design geometry of labyrinth seals to prevent contamination across a seal and maintaining small leakage flowrates. This results in a windback seal that has only one tooth which continuously winds around the shaft like a screw thread. These seals are used in gas compressors to isolate the gas face seal from bearing oil. A purge gas is passed through the seal into the bearing housing. The helical design allows the seal to clear itself of any oil contamination. Windback seal performance is controlled through changing the seal geometry. A 2D graphical design tool for calculating the total and cavity leakage flowrates for windback seals is introduced. The effectiveness of the Fluent CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) commercial code to accurately predict the leakage rate for windback seals was evaluated. The objective is to determine if CFD simulations can be used along with a few experimental tests to study windback seals of this design with air as the working fluid. Comparison of measurement and predictions for a windback seal using the ????-???? turbulence model with enhanced wall treatment functions show predictions and measurements comparing very well with a maximum difference of 5% for leakage rate. Similarly, the leakage rate of the tested smooth seal compares favorably with two dimensional CFD predictions, with a difference of 2%-11% and 8%-15% using laminar and ????-???? turbulent flow models, respectively. The variation of leakage with shaft speed and pressure ratio across the seals is accurately predicted by the CFD simulations. Increasing the rotor speed to 15000 rpm increases the measured leakage flowrate for the windback seal by 2% at high differential pressure and 4.5% at low differential pressure, and decreases it by 10 % for the smooth seal. The effects of seal clearance, tooth pitch, cavity depth and the tooth number of starts on leakage flowrate, velocity and pressure distributions were studied numerically for three differential pressures and four rotor speeds.