PREDICTION OF LEAKAGE FLOW AND ROTORDYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS FOR AN ECCENTRIC LABYRINTH GAS SEAL

Abstract

Labyrinth seals are key elements to limit leakage flow between rotating and stationary parts of turbo machines. However, these seals can modify the rotordynamic stability of machines. Thus, accurate predictions of static and dynamic behaviour for labyrinth seals are very important to optimize efficiency and operating conditions of rotating machines using this kind of seals. The present work contributes by a numerical model based on CFD computation to predict leakage flow and rotordynamic coefficients for a short eccentric labyrinth seal with four teeth fixed on the rotor. The developed model accuracy has been validated on experimental measurements of the pressure distribution along and around the seal which drops from 110770 Pa at the seal inlet to 103300 Pa at the seal outlet. A parametric study has been conducted to show the effect of pressure ratio and inlet swirl ratio on leakage flow and rotordynamic coefficients of the seal. In this study, the outlet pressure is kept constant but the inlet/outlet pressure ratio varies from 1.072 to 8 while three inlet swirl ratios (0, 0.5 and 1) are considered. Obtained results of this work are presented to help designers and industrials optimizing operating conditions and improving performances of this kind of seals.

Keywords

• Labyrinth seal
• leakage flow
• Rotordynamic coefficients
• inlet swirl velocity
• whirl frequency