Numerical investigation on leakage and rotordynamic performance of the honeycomb seal with swirl-reverse rings

Honeycomb seals are a crucial component to restrict the leakage flow and improve system stability for the turbomachines and aero-engines.In this work,the leakage and rotordynamic performance of honeycomb seals with the Swirl-Reverse Ring(SRR)is predicted by employing the approach of Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)and the multifrequency whirling model theory.Numerical results show that the positive preswirl flow and circumferential velocity can be effectively weakened for the honeycomb seal as SRR is introduced.The obtained results also suggest that the direct stiffness,direct damping,and effective stiffness will not reduce,for the honeycomb seal is introduced to SRR.However,the honeycomb seal with SRR can significantly reduce the crosscoupled stiffness and remarkably enhance the effective damping.Meanwhile,the absolute value of negative tangential force acting on the rotor surface significantly increased for the honeycomb seal introduced SRR.Therefore,the whirling velocity of the rotor would be weakened.This phenomenon would be conducive to improve the stability of the rotor.Besides,the performance of SRR can be further enhanced when SRR possesses a smaller bending angle,and a higher arrangement density and height.

The Notch pathway attenuates burn-induced acute lung injury in rats by repressing reactive oxygen species

Background:Acute lung injury(ALI)is a common complication following severe burns.The underlying mechanisms of ALI are incompletely understood;thus,available treatments are not sufficient to repair the lung tissue after ALI.Methods:To investigate the relationship between the Notch pathway and burn-induced lung injury,we established a rat burn injury model by scalding and verified lung injury via lung injury evaluations,including hematoxylin and eosin(H&E)staining,lung injury scoring,bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and wet/dry ratio analyses,myeloperoxidase immunohistochemical staining and reac-tive oxygen species(ROS)accumulation analysis.To explore whether burn injury affects Notch1 expression,we detected the expression of Notch1 and Hes1 after burn injury.Then,we extracted pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells(PMVECs)and conducted Notch pathway inhibition and activation experiments,via aγ-secretase inhibitor(GSI)and OP9-DLL1 coculture,respectively,to verify the regulatory effect of the Notch pathway on ROS accumulation and apoptosis in burn-serum-stimulated PMVECs.To investigate the regulatory effect of the Notch pathway on ROS accumulation,we detected the expression of oxidative-stress-related molecules such as superoxide dismutase,nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate(NADPH)oxidase(NOX)2,NOX4 and cleaved caspase-3.NOX4-specific small interfering RNA(siRNA)and the inhibitor GKT137831 were used to verify the regulatory effect of the Notch pathway on ROS via NOX4.Results:We successfully established a burn model and revealed that lung injury,excessive ROS accumulation and an inflammatory response occurred.Notch1 detection showed that the expression of Notch1 was significantly increased after burn injury.In PMVECs challenged with burn serum,ROS and cell death were elevated.Moreover,when the Notch pathway was suppressed by GSI,ROS and cell apoptosis levels were significantly increased.Conversely,these parameters were reduced when the Notch pathway was activated by OP9-DLL1.Mechanistically,the inhibition of NOX4 by siRNA and GKT137831 showed that the Notch pathway reduced ROS production and cell apoptosis by downregulating the expression of NOX4 in PMVECs.Conclusions:The Notch pathway reduced ROS production and apoptosis by downregulating the expression of NOX4 in burn-stimulated PMVECs.The Notch-NOX4 pathway may be a novel therapeutic target to treat burn-induced ALI.

Effect of hole arrangement patterns on the leakage and rotordynamic characteristics of the honeycomb seal

The honeycomb seal is a vital component to reduce the leakage flow and improvethe system stability for the turbomachines. In this work, a three-dimensional model is established for the interlaced hole honeycomb seal (IHHCS) and the non-interlaced hole honeycombseal (NIHHCS) to investigate its leakage and rotordynamic characteristics by adopting computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Results show that the hole arrangement patterns have littleimpact on the pressure drop and turbulence kinetic energy distribution for the seals, and theIHHCS possesses a slightly lower leakage flow rate than the NIHHCS. Moreover, the numericalresults also show that the NIHHCS possesses a better rotordynamic performance than theIHHCS at all investigated conditions. Both seals show a larger k and a lower Ceff with the increase of the positive preswirl ratios and rotational speeds, while the negative preswirl ratioswould reduce the k and improve the Ceff. The NIHHCS possesses a higher absolute value ofFt for all operating conditions, this could explain the distinction of Ceff for both seals atdifferent working conditions.

Rotordynamic characteristics prediction for scallop damper seals using computational fluid dynamics

Enhancing damping characteristic is one of the effective methods to solve the instability problem of the rotor system.The three-dimensional numerical analysis model of scallop damper seal was established,and the effects of inlet pressures,preswirl ratios,rotational speeds,interlaced angles and seal cavity depths on the rotordynamic characteristics of scallop damper seal were studied based on dynamic mesh method and multi-frequencies elliptic whirling model.Results show that the direct stiffness of the scallop damper seal increases with decreasing inlet pressure and increasing rotational speed and cavity depth.When the seal cavity is interlaced by a certain angle,which shows positive direct stiffness.The effective damping of the scallop damper seal increases with the increasing inlet pressure,the decreasing preswirl ratio and the rotational speed and cavity depth.There exists an optimal interlaced angle to maximize the effective damping and the system stability.The leakage of the scallop damper seal is significantly reduced with decreasing inlet pressure.The preswirl will reduce the leakage flowrate,and the rotational speed has a slight effect on the leakage performance.The leakage of the scallop damper seal decreases with increasing seal cavity depth.