• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.1149-1149
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• 2006

The leakage characteristic is an important factor in power plant. However, most of power plant have efficiency problem which is occurred leaking between high pressure steam turbine axle and stator. The labyrinth seal which is used between the main turbine axle and stator in the power plant. Because it is able to be non-contact seal and it is minimize clearance to decrease the leakage. But its actual system is too huge to experiment. Therefore, most steam turbine seal performance tests were conducted by air similarity test. This paper described a test facility and program for air similarity test of high pressure steam turbine seal. A test facility has been designed and built to evaluate leakage verification of labyrinth seal. The test facility consist of air compressor, anti-swirl labyrinth seal for 1/3 air similarity model, pressure transducer, air flow measure system, instrumentation and auxiliary system. For evaluation of steam turbine seal performance, the air similarity test of labyrinth seal leakage verification was conducted and we compared experiment data and analysis result.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.87-93
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• 2009

The labyrinth weir can be defined that the plane shape of overflow part is not straight line and is a kind of weir having overflow length increased by changing its plane shape. Recently, the labyrinth weir can be widely applied to various hydraulic facilities such as dam spillway, irrigation facilities, and canal structures by increasing precipitation. This study was performed to analyze the hydraulic characteristics according to triangle labyrinth weir using hydraulic model experiments and finally estimate the discharge coefficients for triangle labyrinth weirs. The formulae of discharge coefficient provided in this study, which make it feasible to calculate the overflow rate by a coefficient of correlation. sum of residuals, MAPE(Mean Absolute Percentage Error), are expected to be widely applied to design of hydraulic facilities such as dam spillway and irrigation system.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2021

This study describes the effects of a thrust labyrinth seal applied to the backside of a centrifugal impeller on the axial thrust force for high speed turbomachinery. The bulk flow model using Neumann's equation calculates the seal cavity pressures and leakage flow rate of the thrust labyrinth seal based on three configurations: teeth-on-rotor (TOR), teeth-on-stator (TOS), and interlocking labyrinth seal (ILS). Prediction results show that the ILS is superior to the TOR and TOS in terms of leakage flow rate. A mathematical model of a centrifugal impeller with a thrust labyrinth seal on its backside calculates the force components corresponding to the impeller inlet, shroud, impeller backside outer, backside seal, and backside inner pressures. A summation of the force components renders the total axial thrust force acting on the centrifugal impeller. The Newton-Raphson numerical scheme iteratively calculates the pressures and leakage flow rate through the impeller wall gap. The prediction results reveal that the leakage flow rate and total axial thrust force increase with rotor speed, and the ILS significantly decreases the leakage flow rate, whereas it slightly increases the axial thrust force when compared to TOR and TOS. Increasing the seal clearance causes an increase in the leakage flow rate and a slight decrease in the axial thrust force with the ILS.

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

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.61-71
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• 2023

This study proposes a procedure for designing a labyrinth seal that meets both leakage flow rate and rotordynamic performance criteria (effective damping, amplification factor, separation margin, logarithmic decrement, and vibration amplitude). The seal is modeled using a one control volume (1CV) bulk flow approach to predict the leakage flow rate and rotordynamic coefficients. The rotating shaft is modeled with the finite element (FE) method and is assumed to be supported by two linearized bearings. Geometry, material and operating conditions of the rotating shaft, and the supporting characteristics of the bearings were fixed. A single labyrinth seal is placed at the center of the rotor, and the linearized dynamic coefficients predicted by the seal numerical model are inserted as linear springs and dampers at the seal position. Seal designs that satisfy both leakage and rotordynamic performance are searched by modifying five seal design parameters using the multi-grid method. The five design parameters include pre-swirl ratio, number of teeth, tooth pitch, tooth height and tooth tip width. In total, 12500 seal models are examined and the optimal seal design is selected. Finally, normalization was performed to select the optimal labyrinth seal designs that satisfy the system performance requirements.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1990.06a
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• pp.73-91
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• 1990

Incompressible turbulent flow in a single cavity of the stepped multi-cavity labyrinth seal is numerically analyzed to investigate an effect of the shaft speed on the leakage. SIMPLER algorithm is used to solve governing equations, and low-Reynolds k-$\varepsilon$ turbulence model as outlined by Launder and Sharma is adopted to predict turbulent flow. Pressure drops for the cavity with and without the groove are evaluated for four different Reynolds numbersand three different shaft speeds.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.27-33
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• 1990

Incompressible turbulent flow in a single cavity of the stepped multi-cavity labyrinth seal is numerically analyzed to investigate an effect of the shaft speed on the leakage. SIMPLER algorithm is used to solve governing equations, and low-Reynolds k-$\varepsilon$ turbulence model as outlined by Launder and Sharma is adopted to predict turbulent flow. Pressure drops for the cavity with and without the groove are evaluated for four different Reynolds numbers and three different shaft speeds.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1996.04b
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• pp.153-157
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• 1996

A restrict jetting air is applied against leakage flow to improve a sealing performance of conventional labyrinth seal. A CFD analysis and sealing experiment are introduced to evaluate a sealing performance of applied model. The base of enhanced sealing is explained as a reducing clearance effect by jetting air. As a result, the applied model can improve the sealing performance of labyrinth seal in spite of the wide leakage clearance.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.2 no.3 s.4
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• pp.52-58
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• 1999

The leakage and rotordynamic coefficients of see-through type gas labyrinth seals are determined using a two-control-volume-model analysis with Moody's wall-friction-factor formula which is defined with a large range of Reynolds number and relative roughness. Jet flow theory are used for the calculation of the recirculation velocity in the cavity. For the reaction force from the labyrinth seal, linearized zeroth-order and the first-order perturbation equations are developed for small motion about a centered position. The leakage and rotordynamic coefficient results of the present analysis are compared with Scharrer's theoretical analysis using Blasius' wall-friction-factor formula and Pelletti's experimental results. The comparison shows that the present analysis using Moody's wall-friction-factor formula and Scharrer's theoretical analysis using Blasius' wall-friction-factor formula give the same results for a smooth seal surface and the range of Reynolds number less than $10^5$.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.713-718
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• 2015

This article describes the calculation procedure for the dynamic characteristics of a high-pressure labyrinth seal wherein the friction force and rotor whirling force are considered; SFCP, the commercial code developed by Lee and two colleagues, is used in the procedure. The simulation results were reviewed in comparison to those of the experiments provided by Benckert; additionally, the SFCP simulation results were verified using the CFD analysis presented by Toshio Hirano. This calculation procedure may therefore be applied to the dynamic characteristics of the labyrinth seals of high-pressure turbo machinery.