• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.70-80
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• 2012

Non-contact type mechanical face seals installed in mechanical systems prevent leakage of working fluid using thin working fluid film between stator and rotor. For that purpose, various kinds of surface profiles, grooves and conings have been applied on seal surfaces of stator and rotor to generate hydrodynamic and hydrostatic pressure. The thickness distribution of working fluid film is one of important factors which affect the working performances of mechanical face seal, and it is strongly affected by the surface height profiles of stator and rotor. Therefore, appropriate design of surface height profiles of stator and rotor is necessary to optimize the working performances and life of mechanical face seal. In this study, numerical analysis using finite volume method was conducted to estimate the working performances of wavy mechanical face seals which have 36 coning combinations. As results, minimum thickness of working fluid film, leakage volume of working fluid and friction torque in static equilibrium condition of mechanical face seal, and stiffness of working fluid film were obtained. The results show that the working performances of mechanical face seal were affected by the coning combinations which can change the thickness distribution of working fluid film and pressure distribution in sealing region of mechanical face seal.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제27권5호
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• pp.240-248
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• 2011

Mechanical face seal installed in primary heat transport pump used for heavy water reactor prevents leakage of working fluid using thin working fluid film between primary seal ring and mating ring. If the leakage of working fluid exceeds the allowable volume, serious accident can be happened by the trouble of primary heat transport pump. The thinner fluid film exists between primary seal ring and mating ring, the less working fluid leaks out. On the other hand, if the thickness of fluid film is not enough, the life of mechanical face seal will be reduced by friction and wear. Therefore appropriate design is necessary to maximize the performance and life of mechanical face seal. In this study, numerical analysis using finite volume method was conducted to investigate the performance of mechanical face seals which have same deep straight groove and 11 different net coning values. As results, equilibrium clearance between primary seal ring and mating ring, leakage volume of working fluid, friction torque on sealing surface and stiffness of working fluid film were obtained. With increasing net coning value, equilibrium clearance and leakage volume increase, and friction torque and stiffness of fluid film decrease.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제24권12호
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• pp.2989-2994
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• 2000

A mechanical face seal is a tribo-element intended to control leakage of working fluid at the interface of a rotating shaft and its housing. Leakage of working fluid decreases drastically as the clearance between mating seal faces gets smaller. But the very small clearance may result in an increased reduction of seal life because of high wear and heat generation. Therefore, in the design of mechanical face seals a compromise between low leakage and acceptable seal life is important, ant it present a difficult and practical design problem. A fluid film or sealing dam geometry of the seal clearance affects seal lubrication performance very much, and thereby is optimization is one of the main design consideration. in this study the Reynolds equation for the sealing dam of mechanical face seals is numerically analyzed, using the Galerkin finite element method, which is readily applied to various seal geometries, to give lubrication performances, such as opening force, restoring moment, leakage, and axial and angular stiffness coefficients. Then, to improve the seal performance an optimization is performed, considering various design variables simultaneously. For the tested case the optimization ha successfully resulted in the optimal design values of outer and inner seal radii, coning, seal clearance, and balance radius while satisfying all the operation subjected constraints and design variable side-constraints, and improvements of axial and angular stiffness coefficients by 16.8% and 2.4% respectively and reduction of leakage by 38.4% have been achieved.