Flow Analysis of Micro Scale Gap inside a Mechanical Seal

Abstract

Mechanical seals are used to control leakage in rotating machinery, such as fuel pump or power generating pump. Those mechanical seals consist of two rings, a stationary ring and the rotating ring. The stationary ring is fixed to the housing around the shaft hole and the rotating ring is fixed to a shaft which rotates with it. While the machineries are in operation, two rings keep micron scaled gap by generating the hydrodynamic pressure between the sliding surfaces. Furthermore, it has been found that spiral grooves with a depth of a few microns on the stationary ring surface can form the sufficient hydrodynamic fluid film on the lubrication area. However, CFD-based predictions of the flow field in the lubricating area inside mechanical seals with surface textures have not been fully developed. In this study, we tried to understand the flow field of a few microns of the lubrication area with spiral grooves inside the mechanical seal in CFD analysis.