• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.253-261
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• 2020

In this paper, we present an experimental investigation of the frequency characteristics and a visual inspection of an oxidizer pump with a modified rear-floating ring seal for a 7-tonf turbopump. An oxidizer pump typically operates at high rotational speeds and under cryogenic conditions. Despite its low hydraulic efficiency, the floating ring seal is frequently employed as a leakage control solution for turbomachinery because it effectively reduces abrasion by friction. When the oxidizer pump starts up, the floating ring moves excursively but locks up stably against the pump casing when the contact pressure increases. The compressive force on the floating ring depends on the hydrodynamic forces induced by the flow through the floating ring. This force is controlled by the nose position of the floating ring. Based on a validation test for a 7-tonf turbopump with two types of floating rings, we concluded that the floating ring with a small diameter nose can move easily with a low contact pressure in the cooling path. This leads to instability of the pressure fluctuation around the floating ring. In contrast, a floating ring with a large diameter nose has a high contact pressure and attaches strongly to the casing, which causes wear and frictional oxidation between the contact surfaces of the impeller and the floating ring.

• 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.

• 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.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2003

A turbo pump unit provides high pressure oxygen and fuel in a space shuttle main engine (SSME). This paper focused on rotordynamics, investigating its characteristics based on a numerical simulation of turbo pump finite element model. Speeds up to 50,000 rpm are considered, as well as the special problems related to elastic-ring, seal hydrodynamic force, shroud force and clearance-excitation farce. The rotordynamic prediction shows that the elastic-ring which is inserted between the casing and the outer race of ball bearing allows far an acceptable separate margin of first critical speed. Additionally, the results show that the floating ring seal, which have a peculiar ring, adds substantial stiffness and damping to the system as well as exhibits superior performance in terms of rotordynamic stability of system compared to the plain seal.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.347-351
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• 2004

The cryogenic test facility is developed for test of deep groove ball bearings, floating ring seals, materials (steel & copper) for High Pressure Turbopump of liquid rocket engine (LRE). The cryogenic bearing test is performed to evaluate the flow rate of cooling water and the load-carrying capacity of bearings. The cryogenic seal test is performed to evaluate the determination of magnitude of leakages through the seal, a time variation of this magnitude. The test of the materials Pair is performed to evaluate its fitness for operation in the liquid oxygen medium.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.61-68
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• 2020

7-tonf turbopump real-propellant tests in Naro Space Center were conducted and high-frequency signals from an accelerometer and pressure sensors installed on the casing and the inlet/outlet pipeline of LOX pump were analyzed to estimate the structural and hydrodynamic stabilities. Waterfalls, frequency spectrums and RMS(Root Mean Square) values of the measured signals were calculated and characteristic instability frequencies by the rotating cavitation and the rear floating ring seal(F.R.S) were investigated. Static pressures of the inlet/outlet pipeline and an acceleration of the pump casing are strongly affected on pressure fluctuation induced by the rear floating ring seal in the leakage path. Despite the acceleration RMS value seems totally small, the rotating-speed-related synchronous frequency affecting the shaft instability is distinctly observed in the frequency contour.