• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.150-156
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• 2009

Precise leakage prediction for annular type seals of turbomachinery is necessary for enhancing their efficiency and various prediction methods have been developed. As the seal passage is designed intricately, the analysis based on Bulk-flow concept which has been mainly used in predicting seal leakage is limited. In order to improve the seal leakage prediction, full Navier-Stokes Equations with turbulent model derived in the seal flow passage have to be solved. In this study, 3D CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis has been performed for predicting leakage of various non-contact type anular seals using FLUENT. Compared to the results by Bulk-flow model analysis, experiment, and 2D CFD analysis, the result of 3D CFD analysis shows improvement in predicting seal leakage, especially for the parallel grooved pump seal.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2010

Precise prediction of rotordynamic coefficients for annular type seal of turbomachinery is necessary for enhancing their vibrational stability and various prediction methods have been developed. As the seal passage is designed complicatedly, the analysis based on Bulk-flow concept which has been mainly used in predicting seal dynamics is limited. In order to improve the seal rotordynamic prediction, full Navier-Stokes Equations with turbulent model derived in the seal flow passage have to be solved. In this study, 3D CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis has been performed for predicting rotordynamic coefficients of non-contact type annular plain seal using FLUENT. Comparing with the results of Bulk-flow model analysis, the result of 3D CFD analysis shows good agreement.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.3 s.36
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• pp.14-21
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• 2006

Leakage reduction through annular type seals of turbomachinery is necessary for enhancing their efficiency and the precise prediction method of seal leakage is needed. The analysis based on Bulk-flow concept has been mainly used in predicting seal leakage. However, full Navier-Stokes Equations with turbulent model derived in the seal flow passage have to be solved for improving the prediction of seal leakage. FLUENT 6 which is commercial CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) code based on FVM(Finite Volume Method) and SIMPLE algorism has been used to analyze leakage of various non-contact-type seals in this presentation. Comparing with the results of Bulk-flow model analysis and experiment, the result of CFD analysis shows good agreement with that of existing theoretical analysis for the incompressible grooved seal and compressive plain and staggered seal. The CFD analysis also shows improvement on the leakage prediction of the incompressible plain seal and compressive see-through-type labyrinth seal.