Abstract
The mechanical face seal has been tested in Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARl) for turbopump applications. In the turbopump under current development, the mechanical face seal is installed between fuel pump and turbine to prevent a mixture of fuel and combustion gas. Generally the mechanical face seal in turbopump is exposed to severe environment because of great rotational speed, high temperature of combustion gas and high level of pressure difference. Thus a series of tests were performed to guarantee the reliability of mechanical face seal by means of simulating the practical operating conditions. The tests were conducted up to 20,000 rpm with pressure difference of 800 kPa and temperature of 620 K In addition several carbon materials for mechanical face seal were conducted to the tests to compare the life time. During the tests, the performance against leakage was monitored and the carbon wear was also measured to estimate the life of a mechanical face seal The results show that the leakage flow rates of mechanical face seal is ignorable compared to an overall flow rate of fuel pump. The carbon material which has the finest wear resistance was found during the tests. Lastly no critical failure of mechanical face seal was found during the tests and the reliability of mechanical face seal for turbopump was successfully proved.
