Experimental Study of Dynamic Fluid Forces and Moments for a Long Annular Seal

1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuji Kanemori ◽  
Takuzo Iwatsubo

The dynamic fluid reaction forces and moments of a long annular seal were experimentally studied. A new testing apparatus was constructed in order to measure restoring forces and moments caused by the cylindrical whirling motion of a rotor. Experiments were conducted at various rotor speeds, whirling speeds, and with different pressure drops across the long seal. The rotor and outer cylinder were set in concentric alignment. The tangential force component was derived from the measured fluid force in order to determine the unstable threshold. Moments developed by the long seal were also obtained. Restoring forces and moments were expressed as stiffness, damping coefficients and added mass. These coefficients were then compared with Childs’ theory and found to be compatible.

2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (3) ◽  
pp. 592-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoru Kaneko ◽  
Takashi Ikeda ◽  
Takuro Saito ◽  
Shin Ito

Honeycomb damper seals with convergent-tapered clearance have been proposed to improve static and dynamic characteristics of liquid annular seals employed in pumps. Their characteristics are experimentally investigated and compared to those for a conventional straight (no taper) annular seal with smooth surface and a straight damper seal with identical honeycomb pattern in seal stator. Three convergent-tapered honeycomb damper seals are used in the test, and have different inlet clearance (maximum clearance) and almost the same outlet clearance (minimum clearance). Their outlet clearance is almost the same as the clearance of the straight smooth seal and is slightly smaller than the clearance of the straight damper seal. Experimental results show that the convergent-tapered damper seals as well as the straight damper seal have lower leakage flow rate and cross-coupled stiffness coefficients, and larger main damping coefficients than the straight smooth seal, resulting in larger effective damping coefficients. These results are mainly due to surface roughness in the seal stator such as a honeycomb pattern used in the present analysis. The convergent-tapered damper seals also have larger main stiffness coefficients than the straight smooth and damper seals, which is mainly due to the convergent-tapered clearance and yields larger radial reaction force for a small concentric whirling motion. Consequently, the convergent-tapered damper seals have better seal characteristics than the conventional straight smooth seal and the straight damper seal with the same roughness pattern from the viewpoints of decreasing the leakage and improving the rotor stability capacity.


Author(s):  
J. Alex Moreland ◽  
Dara W. Childs ◽  
Joshua T. Bullock

Electric submersible pumps utilize grooved-rotor seals to reduce leakage and break up contaminants within the pumped fluid. Additionally, due to their decreased surface area (when compared to a smooth seal), grooved seals decrease the chance of seizure in the case of rotor-stator rubs. Despite their use in industry, the literature does not contain measurements for smooth-stator/circumferentially-grooved-rotor liquid annular seals. This paper presents test results consisting of leakage measurements and rotordynamic coefficients for a smooth-stator/circumferentially-grooved-rotor liquid annular seal. Both static and dynamic performance for the grooved seal are investigated for various imposed pre-swirl ratios, static eccentricities, axial pressure drops, and running speeds. The grooved seals′ static and dynamic performance are compared to those of a smooth seal with identical length, diameter, and radial clearance. Results show that adding grooves reduces leakage at lower speeds (less than 5 krpm) and higher axial pressure drops, but does little at higher speeds. The grooved seal’s direct stiffness is generally negative, which would be detrimental to pump rotordynamics. Furthermore, increasing pre-swirl increases the magnitude of cross-coupled stiffness and increases the whirl frequency ratio. When compared to the smooth seal, the grooved seal has smaller effective damping coefficients, indicative of worse stability characteristics.


1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuji Kanemori ◽  
Takuzo Iwatsubo

The mutual interaction effects of cylindrical and conical whirl on the dynamic fluid forces and moments, which act on a long annular seal, were studied experimentally. A whirling motion composed of cylindrical and conical whirls is actuated by intentionally giving the phase difference between the seal exit and inlet whirling movements. This whirling motion is believed to generate during actual pump running. The experiment was conducted by changing the phase difference, at various rotor speeds and with a pressure difference between the seal inlet and exit. The result of this study revealed that fluid forces and moments are greatly dependent on the phase difference of the whirl, namely the long seal has a significant coupling between displacements and rotations. Furthermore, dynamic fluid forces and moments were derived theoretically, assuming that total fluid force acting on the rotor could be determined by superposing fluid forces due to conical and cylindrical whirling movements. It was confirmed that the experimental results moderately agree with the theoretical values, if the rotor and seal are set in concentric alignment, the principle of superposition becomes applicable.


Author(s):  
A. Sepehri ◽  
K. Farhang

Three dimensional elastic-plastic contact of two nominally flat rough surfaces is by developing the equations governing the shoulder-shoulder contact of asperities based on the Chang, Etsion and Bogy (CEB) model of contact in which volume conservation is assumed in the plastic flow regime. Shoulder-shoulder asperity contact yields a slanted contact force consisting of both tangential (parallel to mean plane) and normal components. Each force component comprises elastic and elastic-plastic parts. Statistical summation of normal force components leads to the derivation of the normal contact force for the elastic-plastic contact akin to the CEB model. Half-plane tangential force due to elastic-plastic contact is derived through the statistical summation of tangential force component along an arbitrary tangential direction.


Author(s):  
A. Guinzburg ◽  
C. E. Brennen ◽  
A. J. Acosta ◽  
T. K. Caughey

The role played by fluid forces in determining the rotordynamic stability of a centrifugal pump is gaining increasing attention. The present research investigates the contributions to the rotordynamic forces from the discharge-to-suction leakage flows between the front shroud of the rotating impeller and the stationary pump casing. In particular, the dependency of the rotordynamic characteristics of leakage flows on the swirl at the inlet to the leakage path was examined. An inlet guide vane was designed for the experiment so that swirl could be introduced at the leakage flow inlet. The data demonstrates substantial rotordynamic effects and a destabilizing tangential force for small positive whirl ratios; this force decreased with increasing flow rate. The effect of swirl on the rotordynamic forces was found to be destabilizing.


1963 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 346-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. Sortais ◽  
S. Kobayashi ◽  
E. G. Thomsen

In conventional spinning of cones, the cone-wall thickness variation was studied using blanks of 1100-0 commercially pure aluminum sheet of 0.050-in. thickness. The results revealed that the radial stress induced in the unspun flange is the major cause of nonuniform wall thickness of spun cones. The theoretical tangential force component was derived by use of the deformation energy method. Qualitative agreement was found between the theoretical and the experimental values of tangential force component in the underspinning conditions.


Author(s):  
Luis San Andrés ◽  
Xueliang Lu

Wet gas compression systems and multiphase pumps are enabling technologies for the deep sea oil and gas industry. This extreme environment determines both machine types have to handle mixtures with a gas in liquid volume fraction (GVF) varying over a wide range (0 to 1). The gas (or liquid) content affects the system pumping (or compression) efficiency and reliability, and places a penalty in leakage and rotordynamic performance in secondary flow components, namely seals. In 2015, tests were conducted with a short length smooth surface annular seal (L/D = 0.36, radial clearance = 0.127 mm) operating with an oil in air mixture whose liquid volume fraction (LVF) varied to 4%. The test results with a stationary journal show the dramatic effect of a few droplets of liquid on the production of large damping coefficients. This paper presents further measurements and predictions of leakage, drag power, and rotordynamic force coefficients conducted with the same test seal and a rotating journal. The seal is supplied with a mixture (air in ISO VG 10 oil), varying from a pure liquid to an inlet GVF = 0.9 (mostly gas), a typical range in multiphase pumps. For operation with a supply pressure (Ps) up to 3.5 bar (a), discharge pressure (Pa) = 1 bar (a), and various shaft speed (Ω) to 3.5 krpm (ΩR = 23.3 m/s), the flow is laminar with either a pure oil or a mixture. As the inlet GVF increases to 0.9 the mass flow rate and drag power decrease monotonically by 25% and 85% when compared to the pure liquid case, respectively. For operation with Ps = 2.5 bar (a) and Ω to 3.5 krpm, dynamic load tests with frequency 0 < ω < 110 Hz are conducted to procure rotordynamic force coefficients. A direct stiffness (K), an added mass (M) and a viscous damping coefficient (C) represent well the seal lubricated with a pure oil. For tests with a mixture (GVFmax = 0.9), the seal dynamic complex stiffness Re(H) increases with whirl frequency (ω); that is, Re(H) differs from (K-ω2M). Both the seal cross coupled stiffnesses (KXY and −KYX) and direct damping coefficients (CXX and CYY) decrease by approximately 75% as the inlet GVF increases to 0.9. The finding reveals that the frequency at which the effective damping coefficient (CXXeff = CXX-KXY/ω) changes from negative to positive (i.e., a crossover frequency) drops from 50% of the rotor speed (ω = 1/2 Ω) for a seal with pure oil to a lesser magnitude for operation with a mixture. Predictions for leakage and drag power based on a homogeneous bulk flow model match well the test data for operation with inlet GVF up to 0.9. Predicted force coefficients correlate well with the test data for mixtures with GVF up to 0.6. For a mixture with a larger GVF, the model under predicts the direct damping coefficients by as much as 40%. The tests also reveal the appearance of a self-excited seal motion with a low frequency; its amplitude and broad band frequency (centered at around ∼12 Hz) persist and increase as the gas content in the mixture increase. The test results show that an accurate quantification of wet seals dynamic force response is necessary for the design of robust subsea flow assurance systems.


1987 ◽  
Vol 109 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Ohashi ◽  
H. Shoji

Fluid forces acting on a rotating centrifugal impeller in whirling motion are studied experimentally. A two-dimensional impeller installed in a parallel walled vaneless diffuser was forced on a circular orbital motion at various positive and negative whirl speeds. The measurements show that the fluid forces exert a damping effect on the rotor at most operating conditions, but excite positive whirl when the impeller operates at a partial discharge and rotates at speeds more than twice the whirl speed. The test results were compared with those calculated by the theory described in the 1st Report. The characteristics of whirling fluid forces are examined from both the measurements and calculations. The measured fluid forces are expressed in terms of mass, damping, and stiffness matrices.


1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Guinzburg ◽  
C. E. Brennen ◽  
A. J. Acosta ◽  
T. K. Caughey

In recent years, increasing attention has been given to fluid-structure interaction problems in turbomachines. The present research focuses on just one such fluid-structure interaction problem, namely, the role played by fluid forces in determining the rotordynamic stability and characteristics of a centrifugal pump. The emphasis of this study is to investigate the contributions to the rotordynamic forces from the discharge-to-suction leakage flows between the front shroud of the rotating impeller and the stationary pump casing. An experiment was designed to measure the rotordynamic shroud forces due to simulated leakage flows for different parameters such as flow rate, shroud clearance, face-seal clearance and eccentricity. The data demonstrate substantial rotordynamic effects and a destabilizing tangential force for small positive whirl frequency ratios; this force decreased with increasing flow rate. The rotordynamic forces appear to be inversely proportional to the clearance and change significantly with the flow rate. Two sets of data taken at different eccentricities yielded quite similar nondimensional rotordynamic forces indicating that the experiments lie within the linear regime of eccentricity.


1984 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. P. Saini

Mathematical models describing the deflection behavior of the wheel-work contact presented so far are based on the assumption that contact deflections are a direct function of the normal force on the wheel or the grains during grinding. This paper presents experimental results showing the evidence of a new mechanism of contact deflections due to the rotation of grain as a result of the tangential force component. In this perspective, a new model which considers the deflections due to both the normal and the tangential force is proposed and developed with the assumption of elasto-plastic deformation of the workpiece material around the grain during cutting. The model is shown to be consistent with experimental deflections obtained from single grain cutting on mild steel and EN25 steel specimens.


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