• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1083-1088
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• 2011

The effects of an impeller and floating ring seals on the performance of centrifugal pumps are investigated on the basis of their test results using water. The pumps are single-staged centrifugal pumps developed for 30-ton- and 75-ton-class liquid rocket engines, and are components of a turbopump that supplies propellants (liquid oxidizer and kerosene) to the combustion chamber. The exit width of the impellers and the numbers and exit angles of the impeller blades are found to have influences on the pump heads. In addition, the pumps have different efficiencies according to the gaps between the floating ring seals and the impellers, whereas the pump size seems to have less effect on the efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.820-825
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• 2004

The floating ring seal is used in an oxidizer and a fuel pump of the turbo pump unit in the liquid rocket engine to optimize a leakage without rubbing phenomenon. The damper floating ring seal, one of the floating ring seals, is with round hole pattern surfaces. It can reduce the leakage by increased friction factor that obtained from experimental data. In this paper, the leakage test about floating ring seal and damper floating ring seal was conducted. The test result showed the leakage performance of damper floating ring seal was better than the leakage performance of floating ring seal. With the leakage test the lock-up and rotation test about seal was conducted and that position is measured. The relatively large lock-up eccentric ratio was obtained from the test result of damping floating ring seal. The attitude angle of seal increases with increasing of shaft rotation

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.471-477
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• 2003

The floating ring seal is often used in the turbopump (TP) unit of liquid rocket engine (LRE) owing to its inherent ability of minimizing the leakage flow and superior dynamic characteristics as well. This paper describes the test results concerned with the lock-up and dynamic characteristics of the floating ring seals in the turbopump. The characteristics of the floating ring seals were extracted from the frequency response function (FRF) by instrumental variable method. The experiment was tested at 7.0MPa and 0-24,800 rpm. And the test results were introduced about the dynamic characteristics of floating ring seal related with the eccentricity and attitude angle.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.1142-1148
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• 2006

The floating ring seal which is used in the high pressure turbo pump is frequently used in the oxidizer pump and the fuel pump of the turbo pump of the liquid propulsion rocket, because it is able to minimize clearance to decrease the leakage flow rate. But, floating ring seal has a tendency to increase the force which caused instability of system as the eccentricity ratio increases. In this paper, we devised design of floating ring seal which decrease contact area between floating and supporting ring. Modified floating ring seal has a tendency to decrease the eccentricity ratio compare with original floating ring seal. The whirl frequency ratio which is able to distinguish stability of system decrease compare with original floating ring seal

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.329-336
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• 2004

The lock-up position of the floating ring seal affects the leakage flowrate and the stability. And it is changed depending on the operating and geometry condition. In this paper, the leakage flowrate and stability with change of the height and length were investigated by theoretical analysis and experiment. The parameter of the height and length is expressed to the b and L. The decreasing of the b resulted in the increasing of equivalent whirl frequency ratio in the experimental result at the low speed and high pressure not such as theoretical analysis. As the L increased the leakage flowrate decreased and stiffness and direct damping coefficient increased in the experimental result. That was similar to the theoretical analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.57-64
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• 2010

A performance test of inter propellant seal for a 75 ton class turbopump is conducted using water to evaluate leakage and endurance performance. Each part of fuel pump side and oxidizer pump side for a prototype inter propellant seal has been tested for verifying endurance performance during total accumulated test time 2,100 sec in water. The fuel pump side part with one-stage seal of carbon floating ring shows average leakage rate 13.7 gram/sec under average seal differential pressure 9.4 bar. On the other hand, the oxidizer pump side part with two-stage seal assembly of carbon floating rings shows average leakage rate 7.3 gram/sec under average seal differential pressure 9.5 bar. After the endurance performance test, the inter propellant seal shows good physical condition. A leakage performance test of the inter propellant seal for cryogenic environment will be performed using LN2 in the near future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.47-53
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• 2010

A performance test of a 75 ton class turbopump inter propellant seal is conducted using water to evaluate leakage and endurance performance. Each fuel pump side part and oxidizer pump side part of a prototype inter propellant seal has been tested for verifying endurance performance during total accumulated test time 2,100 sec in water. The fuel pump side part with 1 stage carbon floating ring seal shows average leakage rate 13.7 gram/sec under average seal differential pressure 9.4 bar. On the other hand, the LOx pump side part with 2 stage carbon floating ring seal shows average leakage rate 7.3 gram/sec under average seal differential pressure 9.5 bar. After the endurance performance test, the inter propellant seal shows good physical condition. A cryogenic leakage performance test of the inter propellant seal will be performed using LN2 in the near future.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.8-13
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• 2010

An effective control of the axial thrust of a turbopump is one of the critical issues for obtaining its operational stability. Axial thrusts of the fuel pump for the 75-ton class rocket engine under development were measured with water as a test propellant at a room temperature. According to the test results, the axial thrust of the fuel pump seemed to satisfy the axial force condition of its bearing. Also, the thrust was increased as a whole when the flowrate of the pump was decreased. Furthermore it was found that the thrust and the leakage flowate were modified when the gaps between the floating ring seals and the impeller were changed.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.7 no.6 s.27
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• pp.21-27
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• 2004

The floating ring seal has an advantage to find the optimum position by itself, which is used in the turbo pump of a liquid rocket. The main purpose of seals is to reduce the leakage. Especially, seals of the turbo pump for the liquid rocket engine are operated under the serious conditions such as high pressure above 10 MPa, very low temperature about $-180^{\circ}C$ and high rotating speed above 25,000 rpm. So, rotordynamic stability is very important for the system stability. In this paper, the leakage and dynamic characteristics of floating ring seals were investigated by a experimental and analytical method. The theoretical results of the leakage performance for the floating ring seal showed much higher than that of experimental results. On the other hand, the results of stiffness and damping characteristics showed similarity each other. As the shaft speed was increasing, the whirl frequency ratio was increased in the experimental results.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.38-43
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• 2007

Pumps for a turbopump generally operate under high rotational speeds and large head rise conditions. Therefore, reliability is a prime design requirement. Floating-ring type seals are frequently employed in a turbopump because of robustness despite of low hydraulic efficiency. There are many researches on the floating-ring seal itself, but the effects of the floating ring seals on the performance of the whole pump are not widely studied in spite of their importance. In the present study, experimental and computational studies on the effects of the radial clearance of the floating ring seals on the performance of a pump were performed. The experimental results showed that the head rise and efficiency increased as the floating-ring seal clearance was decreased. The results also showed the possibility that the leakage flow which was injected to the inlet of the inducer could enhance the suction performance of the inducer by diminishing the size of the backflows.