Application of Fractal Contact Model in Dynamic Performance Analysis of Gas Face Seals

Fractal theory provides scale?independent asperity contact loads and assumes variable curvature radii in the contact analyses of rough surfaces, the current research for which mainly focuses on the mechanism study. The present study introduces the fractal theory into the dynamic research of gas face seals under face?contacting conditions. Structure?Function method is adopted to handle the surface profiles of typical carbon?graphite rings, proving the fractal con?tact model can be used in the field of gas face seals. Using a numerical model established for the dynamic analyses of a spiral groove gas face seal with a flexibly mounted stator, a comparison of dynamic performance between the Majumdar?Bhushan(MB) fractal model and the Chang?Etsion?Bogy(CEB) statistical model is performed. The result shows that the two approaches induce differences in terms of the occurrence and the level of face contact. Although the approach distinctions in film thickness and leakage rate can be tiny, the distinctions in contact mechanism and end face damage are obvious. An investigation of fractal parameters D and G shows that a proper D(nearly 1.5) and a small G are helpful in raising the proportion of elastic deformation to weaken the adhesive wear in the sealing dynamic performance. The proposed research provides a fractal approach to design gas face seals.

Influence Analysis of Secondary O-ring Seals in Dynamic Behavior of Spiral Groove Gas Face Seals

The current research on secondary O-ring seals used in mechanical seals has begun to focus on their dynamic properties. However, detailed analysis of the dynamic properties of O-ring seals in spiral groove gas face seals is lacking. In particular a transient study and a difference analysis of steady-state and transient performance are imperative. In this paper, a case study is performed to gauge the effect of secondary O-ring seals on the dynamic behavior（steady-state performance and transient performance） of face seals. A numerical finite element method（FEM） model is developed for the dynamic analysis of spiral groove gas face seals with a flexibly mounted stator in the axial and angular modes. The rotor tilt angle, static stator tilt angle and O-ring damping are selected to investigate the effect of O-ring seals on face seals during stable running operation. The results show that the angular factor can be ignored to save time in the simulation under small damping or undamped conditions. However, large O-ring damping has an enormous effect on the angular phase difference of mated rings, affecting the steady-state performance of face seals and largely increasing the possibility of face contact that reduces the service life of face seals. A pressure drop fluctuation is carried out to analyze the effect of O-ring seals on the transient performance of face seals. The results show that face seals could remain stable without support stiffness and O-ring damping during normal stable operation but may enter a large-leakage state when confronting instantaneous fluctuations. The oscillation-amplitude shortening effect of O-ring damping on the axial mode is much greater than that on the angular modes and O-ring damping prefers to cater for axial motion at the cost of angular motion. This research proposes a detailed dynamic-property study of O-ring seals in spiral groove gas face seals, to assist in the design of face seals.

Discriminative Features of Abnormities in a Spiral Groove Gas Face Seal Based on Dynamic Model Considering Contact

It is a difficult task to root the cause of the failure of a gas face seal because different causes may result in similar observations.In the work being presented,the discrimination of multiple types of abnormities in a spiral groove gas face seal is studied.A dynamic model is employed to analyze groups of cases in order to uncover the dynamic behaviors when the face contact is induced by different mixtures of abnormities,whose discriminative features when motion and contact are monitored are studied and uncovered.A circumferential-pattern-related oscillation phenomenon is discovered,which is extracted from contact information and implies the relative magnitude of the moment on stator and the rotor tilt.The experimental observation shows consistent results.It means that the grooves(or other circumferential patterns)generate useful informative features for monitoring.These results provide guidance for designing a monitored gas face seal system.

Method for solving the nonlinear inverse problem in gas face seal diagnosis based on surrogate models

Physical models carry quantitative and explainable expert knowledge.However,they have not been introduced into gas face seal diagnosis tasks because of the unacceptable computational cost of inferring the input fault parameters for the observed output or solving the inverse problem of the physical model.The presented work develops a surrogate-model-assisted method for solving the nonlinear inverse problem in limited physical model evaluations.The method prepares a small initial database on sites generated with a Latin hypercube design and then performs an iterative routine that benefits from the rapidity of the surrogate models and the reliability of the physical model.The method is validated on simulated and experimental cases.Results demonstrate that the method can effectively identify the parameters that induce the abnormal signal output with limited physical model evaluations.The presented work provides a quantitative,explainable,and feasible approach for identifying the cause of gas face seal contact.It is also applicable to mechanical devices that face similar difficulties.