Development of non-contacting, non-leaking spiral groove liquid face seals

Abstract

A non-contacting and non-leaking liquid face seal operates with zero visible leakage of full face separation during running. It typically uses some face pattern to eliminate fluid leakage and generate force to separate the faces. Because of the separation, the seal will not wear out and frictional power consumption is low. Several such seals had been developed in the author`s laboratory based on spiral groove pumping principles. A test rig with variable seal closing force control was used to test a 57 mm diameter shaft size seal in water, both statically and dynamically with speeds up to 3600 rpm. The maximum dynamic sealing pressure achieved in these tests was 2.8 MPa. The seal face temperature rise was as low as 7{degrees}C. The seal design concepts wee also successfully applied to a 38 mm diameter shaft size compressor gear box oil face seal running at 25000 rpm with a fixed balance diameter. The overall lab and field test data showed that non-contacting and non-leaking seals were feasible. 5 refs., 9 figs., 3 tabs.