Rotordynamic Characteristics of Floating Ring Seals in Rocket Turbopumps

Abstract

Floating ring seals offer an opportunity to reduce leakage flows significantly in rotating machinery. Accordingly, they have been applied successfully to rotating machinery within the last several decades. For rocket turbopump applications, fundamental behavior and design philosophy have been revealed. However, further work is needed to explore the rotordynamic characteristics associated with rotor vibrations. In this study, rotordynamic forces for floating ring seals under rotor's whirling motions are calculated to elucidate rotordynamic characteristics. Comparisons between numerical simulation results and experiments demonstrated in our previous report are carried out. The three-dimensional Reynolds equation is solved by the finite-difference method to calculate hydrodynamic pressure distributions and the leakage flow rate. The entrance loss at the upstream inlet of the seal ring is calculated to estimate the Lomakin effect. The friction force at the secondary seal surface is also considered. Numerical simulation results showed that the rotordynamic forces of this type of floating ring seal are determined mainly by the friction force at the secondary seal surface. The seal ring is positioned almost concentrically relative to the rotor by the Lomakin effect. Numerical simulations agree quite well with the experimental results.