• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.63-69
• /
• 2022

In this research, the rotordynamic characteristics of the labyrinth seal with and without swirl brake were predicted using the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model. Based on previous studies, a simple swirl brake consisting of square vanes without stagger angle is designed and placed in front of the seal inlet. The rotating frame of reference is utilized to consider the whirling motion of the rotor in the steady-state analysis since the whirling motion is transient behavior in nature. CFD analysis was performed in the range of -1 to 1 pre-swirl ratio for a given seal and swirl brake design and operating conditions. The CFD analysis result shows that the swirl brake effectively reduces the pre-swirl since the circumferential fluid velocity of labyrinth seal with swirl brake was lower than that without swirl brake. The cross-coupled stiffness coefficient, which is greatly affected by the circumferential fluid velocity, increased with an increasing pre-swirl ratio in a seal without a swirl brake but showed a low value in a seal with a swirl brake. The change in the damping coefficient was relatively small. The effective damping coefficient of the labyrinth seal with swirl brake was generally constant and showed a higher value than the labyrinth seal without swirl brake.