Leakage Prediction Method for Contacting Mechanical Seals with Parallel Faces

Since the beginning of the 20th century, many researches on the sealing characteristic of mechanical seals were carried out broadly and in depth by various methods and some leakage models were built. But due to the lack of the way to characterize the main factors of influence on the leakage, most of the early researches were based on the assumptions that the seal faces topography and the frictional conditions were invariant. In the early built models, the effect of the surface topography change of the seal face on the leakage rate was neglected. Based on the fractal theory, the contact of end faces of the rotary and stationary rings was simplified to be the contact of a rough surface and an ideal rigid smooth surface, and the contact interface＇s cavity size-distribution function as well as the fractal characteristic of the cavity profile curve was discussed. By analyzing the influence of abrasion on the seal face topography and the leakage channel, the time-correlation leakage prediction model of mechanical seals based on the fractal theory was established and the method for predicting the leakage rate of mechanical seals with parallel plane was proposed. The values of the leakage rate predicted theoretically are similar to the measured values of the leakage rate in the model test and in situ test. The experimental results indicate that the leakage rate of mechanical seals is a transient value. The surface topography of the end faces of the seal tings and its change during the frictional wear of mechanical seals can be accurately characterized by the fractal parameters. Under the work conditions of changeless frictional mechanism, the fractal parameters measured or calculated based on the accelerated testing equation can be used to predict the leakage rate of mechanical seal in service. The proposed research provides the basis for determining the leakage state and predicting working life of mechanical seal.

Friction Characteristics of Mechanical Seals with Laser-textured Seal Faces

Heat generated by friction between faces of mechanica l seals is a major factor that causes deterioration of the seals and shortens th eir service life. Excessive temperature rise can greatly alter the seal geometry and vaporize the sealing fluid, resulting in friction of boundary lubrication. These effects on face seals usually lead to excessive leakage and ultimately ren der the seal inoperable. In order to maintain the reliability of seals, high fri ction and unwanted wear must be avoided. Using the laser-texturing process to produce regular micro-surface structures is a fast and convenient technique compared to some more conventional etching or erosion technique currently used by the seal industry for various grooved face seals. Indeed, by using a pulse laser, better control is obtained on the geometr y, size and pore ratio of seal rings made of metallic or ceramic materials. In t his study, seal rings are made of silicon carbide and carbon. Mating faces of th e rings are polished and only silicon carbide rings are laser-textured. The las er texturing can be controlled to produce spherical pores at selected diameters, depths and pore ratio. The textured rings are then super-polished to remove th e bulges formed on the pores rims. After this process the average pore diameter, pore depth and pore ratio reach the predetermined parameter. Some untextured ri ngs are also treated to the same surface roughness and served as a reference for comparison of the textured rings. A special test rig is used to simulate a mech anical seal system and to measure the effect of the laser texturing on friction and seal performance. Tests are performed at various rotational speeds and vario us axial loads. Compared with the conventional mechanical seals, temperature rise, friction torq ue and friction coefficient of mechanical seals with laser-textured seal faces are much lower. These preliminary results show the potential of improving fricti on performance and increasing seal life with laser-textured seal faces.

Thermal Fluid-Solid Interaction Model and Experimental Validation for Hydrostatic Mechanical Face Seals

Hydrostatic mechanical face seals for reactor coolant pumps are very important for the safety and reliability of pressurized-water reactor power plants.More accurate models on the operating mechanism of the seals are needed to help improve their performance.The thermal fluid–solid interaction（TFSI）mechanism of the hydrostatic seal is investigated in this study.Numerical models of the flow field and seal assembly are developed.Based on the mechanism for the continuity condition of the physical quantities at the fluid–solid interface,an on-line numerical TFSI model for the hydrostatic mechanical seal is proposed using an iterative coupling method.Dynamic mesh technology is adopted to adapt to the changing boundary shape.Experiments were performed on a test rig using a full-size test seal to obtain the leakage rate as a function of the differential pressure.The effectiveness and accuracy of the TFSI model were verified by comparing the simulation results and experimental data.Using the TFSI model,the behavior of the seal is presented,including mechanical and thermal deformation,and the temperature field.The influences of the rotating speed and differential pressure of the sealing device on the temperature field,which occur widely in the actual use of the seal,are studied.This research proposes an on-line and assembly-based TFSI model for hydrostatic mechanical face seals,and the model is validated by full-sized experiments.

INVESTIGATION INTO EFFECT OF SPRING PRESSURE ON PERFORMANCE OF BALANCED MECHANICAL SEALS

The loads acting on the sealing elements of balanced mechanical seals are analyzed. When the balance factor approaches the back pressure factor, the spring pressure will become main part of the face pressure. The leakage model of balanced mechanical seals is established on the base of M-B model for rough surface. Several GY-70 type balanced mechanical seals are tested. The influences of the spring pressure both on the leakage rate and on the friction characteristic of balanced mechanical seals are investigated. The research results indicate that as spring pressure increases, both the clear-ance between two end faces and the leakage rate will decrease, and the friction will be more serious because lubrication medium between the rotating ring and the stationary ring reduces, though the increase of the spring pressure may not be enough to change the face friction state of mechanical seals. There exists an optimum spring pressure for mechanical seal operation. Under this spring pres-sure, not only leakage rate is small, but also the seal end surfaces have a fine friction characteristic. Under different operating conditions, identical type mechanical seals may possess different spring pressure. Appropriate selection of spring pressure is valuable to realize long-period and small leakage rate operating of balanced mechanical seals.

Sealing Performance and Optimization of a Subsea Pipeline Mechanical Connector

Researchers seldom study the optimum design of a mechanical connector for subsea oil-gas pipeline based upon the sealing performance. An optimal design method of a novel subsea pipeline mechanical connector is presented. By analyzing the static metal sealing mechanism, the critical condition of the sealing performance is established for this connector and the formulation method of the contact pressure on the sealing surface is created. By the method the minimum mean contact pressure of the 8.625 inch connector is calculated as 361 MPa, which is the constraint condition in the optimum design of connector.The finite element model is created in ANSYS Parametric Design Language(APDL) and the structure is optimized by the zero-order method, with variance of contact pressure as the objective function, and mean contact pressures and plastic strains as constraint variables. The optimization shows that variances of contact pressure on two sealing surfaces decrease by 72.41% and 89.33%, respectively, and mean contact pressures increase by 31.18% and 52.84%, respectively. The comparison of the optimal connectors and non-optimal connectors in the water pressure experiments and bending experiments shows that the sealing ability of optimized connectors is much higher than the rated pressure of 4.5 MPa, and the optimal connectors don’t leak under the bending moment of 52.2 kN·m.This research provides the formulation to solve contact pressure on the sealing surface and a structure optimization method to design the connectors with various dimensions.

An Improved Design of Spiral Groove Mechanical Seal

The coupling effect among the flow of fluid film, the frictional heat of fluid film and the thermal deformation of sealing rings is inherent in mechanical seals. The frictional heat transfer analysis was carded out to optimize the geometrical parameters of the sealing rings, such as the length, the inner radius and the outer radius. The geometrical parameters of spiral grooves, such as the spiral angle, the end radius, the groove depth, the ratio of the groove width to the weir width and the number of the grooves, were optimized by regarding the maximum bearing force of fluid film as the optimization objective with the coupling effect considered. The depth of spiral groove was designed to gradually increase from the end radius of spiral groove to the outer radius of end face in order to decrease the weakening effect of thermal deformation on the hydrodynamic effect of spiral grooves. The end faces of sealing rings were machined to form a divergent gap at inner radius, and a parallel gap will form to reduce the leakage rate when the thermal deformation takes place. The improved spiral groove mechanical seal possesses good heat transfer performance and sealing ability.

Influencing factors on hydrodynamic lubrication failure of upstream pumping mechanical seal

Considering the effect of viscosity-temperature relationship and cavitation of micro-scale film,the influencing factors on hydrodynamic lubrication performance of upstream pumping mechanical seal were investigated based on the theory of hydrodynamic lubrication.N-S equation,energy equation,viscosity-temperature equation and vapor transport equation were solved with the finite volume method by using Fluent software,which was performed to analyze the influence of the viscosity-temperature and cavitation effect on hydrodynamic lubrication failure of the film.The research demonstrates that it will lead to the significant difference of the temperature field by considering the coupling of temperature and viscosity.When the film thickness decreases and the rotating speed rises,cavitation regions and viscous friction heat increases,the opening force of the film is also enhanced.However,the growth rate is restricted to the cavitation regions and viscous friction heat,and the opening force begins to decline to a certain extent,and thereby being insufficient to open the surfaces of the seals and leading to the failure of automatic adjustment function and severe wear,lubrication failure occurrs.Through comprehensive research on the influences of viscosity-temperature and cavitation effect on hydrodynamic lubrication performance,the theories of failure and design of upstream pumping mechanical seal are further developed.

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.

A Hydrodynamic Model for Dimpled Mechanical Gas Seal Considering Interaction Effect

The mechanical gas seal of aero engine has to face the problems of high wear rate and short lifetime.Surface texture has shown beneficial effects over the tribological characteristics.Here,a hydrodynamic model for dimpled annular area of mechanical gas seal considering the″interaction effect″between adjacent dimples is developed based on the Reynolds equation.Different multi-row columns are chosen and the dimensionless pressure in radial and circumferential directions is calculated.The results indicate that the″interaction effect″is more obvious in the circumferential direction than in the radial direction,even when the area and depth of the dimples are same.Moreover,for the 5×5column,the dimensionless average pressure considering the″interaction effect″increases by45.41% compared with the 1×5column.Further analysis demonstrates that the model with the 5×5column can be more reasonable with the consideration of reducing the calculation error caused by boundary conditions to investigate the hydrodynamic effect for dimpled mechanical gas seal.

Theoretical and experimental study on the rheological properties of WIS grout and the dispersion and sealing mechanism

Recently a new grout material called water inflow sealing(WIS) was invented for sealing water inflow in tunneling and underground constructions. In this study, a special experimental method called intubated counter grouting(ICG) was proposed to investigate the influence of water dispersion on the rheological properties of the grout during the grouting process, and to testify the sealing performance of the grout,such as instant gelling ability(IGA) and anti-dispersion ability(ADA). In the experiment, dispersion was restricted in the downstream of the channel with a high turbulence intensity. The influences of ADA and IGA were therefore decoupled and evaluated separately. Experimental results revealed two distinctive sealing mechanisms of WIS. For a low initial velocity of water, WIS turned the shear flow of water into an overall movement of a plug by absorbing water into the particles. For a high initial velocity and the situation that the particles reached the outlet before sufficiently expanding, WIS modified the rheology of the water in the channel and reduced its velocity till the static state. The distinctive feature of WIS brings a reformation on the sealing mechanism and provides an effective way to control water inflow with high pressure and velocity.

Mechanical property design method of cement sheath in a horizontal shale oil well under fracturing conditions

Based on the elastoplastic model of cement sheath considering the influence of three-dimensional principal stress and the stress field model of interface crack,a mechanical performance design method of cement sheath is established to meet the wellbore sealing requirements during fracturing.This method takes the failure types of the cement sheath,such as tensile failure,plastic yield,interface crack propagation along interface and zigzag propagation into account.Meanwhile,the elasticity modulus and Poisson's ratio quantitative design charts of cement sheath are constructed based on this method,and the safety and risk areas of wellbores are defined,which quantify the yield strength and tensile strength indexes of cement sheath.The results show that decreasing elasticity modulus,increasing yield strength and Poisson's ratio of cement sheath can avoid plastic deformation of cement sheath;increasing the tensile strength of cement sheath can prevent its tensile failure;increasing elasticity modulus and Poisson's ratio of cement sheath is good for shortening the length of the interface crack,but will increase the risk of interface cracks zigzagging into cement sheath.The model calculation and case verification has proved that the method in this paper can give accurate calculation results and is convenient for field application.

Erosion wear behaviour and mechanism of abradable seal coating

The erosion wear behaviour and mechanism of several middle temperature seal coatings were investigated by a CMS 100 self made vacuum sand erosion machine. The results show that the relationship between the erosion mass loss and the erosion time is linear, the coatings hold a maximum erosion rate at 60° impact angle, and the relationship between the erosion rate and the impact speed is an exponential function. The speed exponent increases with the increase of the impact angle. At 90° impact, indentations and extruded lips were generated on the coating surface subjected to impact. With repetitive impact by the abrasive particles, the extruded lips were work hardened and peeled off, while flattened metal phase grains were impacted repeatedly, loosed and debonded. At 30° impact, the erosion wear of the coating is characterized by micro cutting, plowing and tunneling via pores and non metal phase. The model of the erosion mechanism is advanced on the basis of the above mentioned erosion wear behaviour.

Preparation and property of seal coating for gas turbine compressor

Double-layer structure of seal coating which consisted of a Ni5Al bond coating and a Ni25 graphite top coating were prepared on steel substrate of gas turbine compressor cylinder block.Bond coating was prepared by atmospheric plasma spraying and top coating was prepared by flame spraying.The microstructure,mechanical properties and abradability of the coating were characterized by scanning elec-tron microscope(SEM),hardness tester,universal testing machine,thermal shock testing machine and abradability testing machine.The res-ults show that the overall spraying structure of the seal coating is uniform,the nickel metal phase is the skeleton supporting the entire coat-ing,and the coating is well bonded without separation.The seal coating has a bonding strength of not less than 7.7 MPa,excellent thermal stability,and thermal shock resistance cycle numbers at 500℃more than 50;the scratch length,deepest invasion depth and wear amount of the coating increase with rise of test temperature,with almost no coating adhesion,indicating that the seal coating has excellent abradability.

建筑电气设备用丙烯酸酯橡胶密封圈失效原因分析

拆取建筑电气设备上未发生渗漏失效和发生渗漏失效的2种丙烯酸酯橡胶密封圈,观察失效状态并分析失效原因。红外分析和热重分析表明2种密封圈胶料的组成一致,物理性能分析表明失效密封圈胶料的硬度较低和拉伸性能较差,动态力学性能分析表明失效密封圈胶料的交联密度较低。综合推断,密封圈渗漏可能是由于其硫化程度不够,强度不足,在装配时被挤压变形而破损,加之耐油性能降低,导致失效。

水性酚醛树脂改性水泥性能与作用机理

酚醛树脂具有黏结性好、固化性能受温度/矿化度影响小、结构致密等优点,水性酚醛树脂与水泥配伍性好,具备改善水泥浆性能的潜力。文中针对传统水泥存在脆性大、固化收缩等问题开展酚醛树脂改性水泥研究,分别评价了树脂水泥稠化时间、力学性能、热稳定性能和封堵强度,明确了酚醛树脂改性水泥的增韧机理与作用方式。实验结果表明:纯水泥和加入5%,10%,15%酚醛树脂后的水泥(简称树脂水泥)初凝时间分别是6,8,9,10 h,均在油田现场井下作业安全泵送时间内;纯水泥和5%,10%,15%树脂水泥的单轴抗压强度变化不明显,而15%树脂水泥的弹性模量降低了57.69%,说明树脂水泥具有更好的形变能力与抗冲击能力;随着酚醛树脂占比的增加,酚醛树脂固化后均匀分布在水泥颗粒的内部与表面,形成致密的三维网络结构,增强了水泥的韧性,也显著提高了水泥的热稳定性;5 mm裂缝岩心中,当承压30 MPa时,纯水泥的出口流量达到354 mL/min,而树脂水泥体系出口流量仅有98 mL/min,相较于纯水泥,树脂水泥的承压气密性得到了极大的提高。

新型柔性坝箔片端面气膜密封变形协调分析及性能智能优化

提出了一种具有柔性密封坝的新型箔片端面气膜密封结构,基于气体润滑和弹性力学相关理论建立新型柔性坝箔片端面气膜密封气弹耦合润滑理论模型,分析密封端面气膜压力和变形分布规律,探究密封运行机理,研究工况参数、端面结构参数对密封性能的影响,采用拉丁超立方抽样法对关键影响因子随机取样,构建MLP神经网络-遗传算法优化模型,获得了满足目标函数的参数优化范围。结果表明:新型柔性坝箔片端面气膜密封可通过密封坝的变形协调作用进一步提高自适应运行能力;柔性密封坝各扇形平箔片之间间隙会使密封泄漏有一定增大,但因间隙形成的流体动压效应有利于密封端面开启;MLP神经网络-遗传算法优化模型可以准确预测密封性能并有效提高多参数多目标条件下的优化精度和效率。

Tribological properties of low-temperature time-dependent pretreated graphite for mechanical seal pairs in high-speed turbopump

The friction coefficient and wear rate of pretreated graphite with liquid nitrogen were obtained by using a ball-on-disk tester,and the wear of GCr15–graphite seal pairs with the low-temperature time-dependent pretreatment was discussed by comparing the wear morphology.The results show that liquid nitrogen pretreatment can affect the hardness and interlayer spacing of graphite.The range of the friction coefficients of pretreated graphite changes from 0.17 to 0.22.With the increase of liquid nitrogen pretreatment time,the wear mechanism of graphite would change from dominated three-body wear to adhesion wear.The experimental results of the mechanical seal with liquid nitrogen pretreatment show that the wear rate of stator is less than 0.00165 mm^(3)·N^(−1)·m^(−1),and the graphite shows a good low-temperature compatibility.

基于VGG19-SK模型的机械密封启停状态识别

机械密封在机械设备的的启停过程中,时常会发生失效。针对这一问题,提出了一种新的深度学习模型VGG19-SK,并将其应用于机械密封的启停状态识别中。首先,在机械密封启停过程中,利用密封声发射信号试验台获取了试验数据,这些数据为训练深度学习模型提供了基础;然后,在传统VGG19基础之上进行了改进,增加了SK卷积层、全局平均池化层和批归一化(BN)层,这些改进显著减少了模型的参数数量,降低了对硬件设备的要求,同时提升了模型的性能;最后,在模型训练过程中,对VGG19-SK模型进行了细致的调优,采用准确率曲线、损失值曲线以及混淆矩阵等指标,与其他模型进行了对比,验证了VGG19-SK模型的有效性,突出了VGG19-SK模型的优越性。研究结果表明:在机械密封启停阶段8种分类识别中,VGG19-SK取得了86.67%的准确率,比传统VGG19提升了约2.19%;同时,模型的训练参数减少了83.74%,模型总体大小缩减了约80%。该VGG19-SK机械密封状态识别模型在兼顾准确率的同时,保证了硬件资源受限状况下的运行能力,为进一步开发基于深度神经网络模型的机械密封状态故障诊断系统奠定了基础。

刷式密封刷丝变形力学特性及周向滑移气动失稳机理研究

随着发动机向着高推重比以及低油耗方向发展,刷式密封的工作环境越来越苛刻。特别是在高压、高旋流环境下,刷丝极易发生周向滑移失稳问题,这就会造成整个密封系统的失效。本文应用悬臂梁理论建立了能够求解刷丝三维弯曲变形的力学理论分析模型,并结合包含刷丝真实结构的三维数值模型构建了刷式密封双向流固耦合的研究方法。在此基础上,分析了进口旋流速度0~300 m/s和不同背压下在压差0.2~0.5 MPa对刷丝力学特性及变形规律的影响;理论推导了刷丝发生周向滑移失稳的力学条件,阐明了刷丝周向滑移失稳的物理机制,并结合三维流固耦合计算总结归纳了刷丝失稳判据。研究结果表明:引起刷丝周向大变形的根本原因是刷丝所受的法向气动力与轴向气动力的比值(F_(n)/F_(ax)),当比值大于0.913时,刷丝将发生周向滑移失稳、进一步导致密封失效。在背压0.1 MPa、压差0.4 MPa时,随旋流速度增大,刷丝感受到的周向动压越大,F_(n)/F_(ax)逐渐增大;当旋流速度增大到230~250 m/s时,F_(n)/F_(ax)超过失稳的临界阈值,刷丝开始发生周向滑移。并且压差越大,刷丝发生滑移失稳的旋流速度越小。然而,与低背压不同,在高背压1.0 MPa下,刷丝在旋流速度100~120 m/s就开始发生周向滑移;且随压差增大,刷丝受到的F_n/Fax是逐渐降低的,即压差越大,越趋于稳定。

碳化硅机械密封在去离子水系统中的腐蚀机理分析与防护

本文结合碳化硅机械密封在去离子水系统中的腐蚀案例,针对碳化硅机械密封在去离子水系统中的腐蚀机理进行了分析和论证,提出了碳化硅机械密封在去离子水系统中腐蚀问题的解决方法。进一步扩展到其他类似场合,提出了碳化硅机械密封在不导电介质中的防护措施。