• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.322-330
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• 2001

The stability and the leakage performance of turbo pump unit seals supported by elastic-ring ball bearings are Investigated for the Improvement of onset speed of instability(OSI). The numerical analysis of floating ring seal in consistence with its geometry and operating conditions is executed with detailed comparison of various seal types. The results show that the floating ring seal has superior performance in terms of rotordynamic salability compared to the ocher type seals while it shows slightly inferior leakage performance. To Improve the leakage performance. floating ring seal could be combined with hole Pattern damper or labyrinth seal surface.

• 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.

• 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.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.194-204
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• 2016

Floating ring seals offer an opportunity to reduce leakage flows significantly in rotating machinery. Accordingly, they have been applied successfully to rotating machinery within the last several decades. For rocket turbopump applications, fundamental behavior and design philosophy have been revealed. However, further work is needed to explore the rotordynamic characteristics associated with rotor vibrations. In this study, rotordynamic forces for floating ring seals under rotor's whirling motions are calculated to elucidate rotordynamic characteristics. Comparisons between numerical simulation results and experiments demonstrated in our previous report are carried out. The three-dimensional Reynolds equation is solved by the finite-difference method to calculate hydrodynamic pressure distributions and the leakage flow rate. The entrance loss at the upstream inlet of the seal ring is calculated to estimate the Lomakin effect. The friction force at the secondary seal surface is also considered. Numerical simulation results showed that the rotordynamic forces of this type of floating ring seal are determined mainly by the friction force at the secondary seal surface. The seal ring is positioned almost concentrically relative to the rotor by the Lomakin effect. Numerical simulations agree quite well with the experimental results.

• 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.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.183-189
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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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• 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

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.341-347
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• 2005

To perform a cryogenic development test for Tribo-elements in a turbopump, a cryogenic bearing and seal test facility (BSTF) is designed and currently under construction in KARI. The working fluid is liquid nitrogen operating at a temperature $-197^{\circ}C$. The maximum operating pressure and volume flow rate of BSTF are 100 bar and 10 liters per second, respectively. The development tests of floating ring seals, inter-propellant seals (IPS) and cryogenic ball bearings in a turbopump will be performed using the BSTF. This paper briefly described design requirements and procedures of BSTF.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.15-18
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• 2001

In this paper, we investigate the rotordynamic characteristics of turbopump system for 9.5ton thrust liquid rocket engine. A finite element method is used to analyze the vibratior characteristics of a rotor-bearing system. The turbopump rotating system is modeled by shaft with sixty elements, nine rigid disks, four ball bearings and four floating ring seals. The calculation results show that the margin of 1st critical speed is increased from 12% to 68% by use of elastic damping ring. In addition, the margin of the 2nd critical speed near the operating speed is increased from 30% to 63% by the stiffness and damping of floating ring seals.