COMPUTATIONAL AND EXPERI-MENTAL STUDY ON TIP LEAKAGE VORTEX OF CIRCUMFERENTIAL SKEWED BLADES

In the steady operation condition, the experiments and the numerical simulations are used to investigate the tip leakage flow fields in three low pressure axial flow fans with three kinds of circumferential skewed rotors, including the radial rotor, the forward-skewed rotor and the back- ward-skewed rotor. The three-dimensional viscous flow fields of the fans are computed. In the experiments, the two-dimensional plane particle image velocimetry （PIV） system is used to measure the flow fields in the tip region of three different pitchwise positions of each fan. The results show that the computational results agree well with the experimental data in the flow field of the tip region of each fan. The tip leakage vortex core segments based on method of the eigenmode analysis can display clearly some characteristics of the tip leakage vortex, such as the origination position of tip leak- age vortex, the development of vortex strength, and so on. Compared with the radial rotor, the other two skewed rotors can increase the stability of the tip leakage vortex and the increment in the forward-skewed rotor is more than that in the backward-skewed one. Among the tip leakage vortices of the three rotors, the velocity of the vortex in the forward-skewed rotor is th6 highest in the circumferential direction and the lowest in the axial direction.

CHARACTERISTCS OF FLUID FILM IN OPTIMIZED SPIRAL GROOVE MECHANICAL SEAL

In order to investigate the sealing performance variation resulted from the thermal deformation of the end faces, the equations to calculate the fluid film pressure distribution, the bearing force and the leakage rate are derived, for the fluid film both in parallel gap and in wedgy gap. The geometrical parameters of the sealing members are optimized by means of heat transfer analysis and complex method. The analysis results indicate that the shallow spiral grooves can generate hydrodynamic pressure while the rotating ring rotates and the bearing force of the fluid film in spiral groove end faces is much larger than that in the flat end faces. The deformation increases the bearing force of the fluid film in flat end faces, but it decreases the hydrodynamic pressure of the fluid film in spiral groove end faces. The gap dimensions which determine the characteristics of the fluid film is obtained by coupling analysis of the frictional heat and the thermal deformation in consideration of the equilibrium condition of the bearing force and the closing force. For different gap dimensions, the relation- ship between the closing force and the leakage rate is also investigated, based on which the leakage rate can be controlled by adjusting the closing force.