Development of Brush Seal Technology for Steam Turbine Retrofit Applications

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Stephen ◽  
Simon I. Hogg
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Labyrinth Seal ◽  
Life Assessment ◽  
Seal Design ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Brush Seals ◽  
Improved Design ◽  
Aero Engines ◽  
Operational Issues

Increased cylinder efficiency is one of the main drivers in the steam turbine retrofit market, particularly for HP and IP modules. To-date most retrofit turbine suppliers have concentrated their efforts on improving the aerodynamic efficiency of blades and other steampath components, optimizing stage numbers and reducing leakage losses. Developments in all of these areas rely heavily on improved design and analysis tools to refine existing designs and evaluate new concepts. The opportunity exists to further reduce leakage losses by replacing conventional labyrinth seal designs by more advanced turbomachinery sealing technology. Brush seals, which have now been used successfully in some gas turbine (mainly aero-engines) applications for several years, are a natural candidate for steam turbine retrofits. Careful thought is needed when applying brush seals as the mechanical integrity of the cylinder needs to be maintained at all times. Attempts to increase performance should never be at the expense of availability and reliability. This paper describes the development work undertaken by the authors’ company and covers research in the areas of brush seal design, performance improvement, operational issues, and life assessment.

Design Parameters of Brush Seals and Their Impact on Seal Performance

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Schwarz ◽  
J. Friedrichs ◽  
J. Flegler
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Test Rig ◽  
Pressure Drops ◽  
Seal Design ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
Extreme Load ◽  
Brush Seals

Brush seals, which were originally designed for gas turbine applications, have been successfully applied to large-scale steam turbines within the past decade. From gas turbine applications, the fundamental behavior and designing levers are known. However, the application of brush seals to a steam turbine is still a challenge. This challenge is mainly due to the extreme load on the brush seal while operating under steam. Furthermore, it is difficult to test brush seals under realistic conditions, i.e. under live steam conditions with high pressure drops. Due to these insufficiencies, 2 test rigs were developed at the University of Technology Braunschweig, Germany. The first test rig is operated under pressurized air and allows testing specific brush seal characteristics concerning their general behavior. The knowledge gained from these tests can be validated in the second test rig, which is operated under steam at pressure drops of 45 bar and temperatures up to 450 °C. Using both the air test rig and the steam test rig helps keep the testing effort comparably small. Design variants can be pre-tested with air, and promising brush seal designs can consequently be tested in the steam seal test rig. The paper focuses on a clamped brush seal design which, amongst others, is used in steam turbine blade paths and shaft seals of current Siemens turbines. The consequences of the brush assembly on the brush appearance and brush performance are shown. The clamped brush seal design reveals several particularities compared to welded brushes. It could be shown that the clamped bristle pack tends to gape when clamping forces rise. Gapping results in an axially expanding bristle pack, where the bristle density per unit area and the leakage flow vary. Furthermore, the brush elements are usually assembled with an axial lay angle, i.e. the bristles are reclined against the backing plate. Hence, the axial lay angle is also part of the investigation.

Rotating Brush Seal Design and Performance Testing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neelesh Sarawate ◽  
Deepak Trivedi
Keyword(s):  
Centrifugal Force ◽  
Compact Space ◽  
Performance Testing ◽  
Labyrinth Seals ◽  
Test Setup ◽  
Seal Design ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
Brush Seals ◽  
Dynamic Seal ◽  
And Performance

Abstract Brush seals are widely used in various turbomachinery applications because they provide reduced leakage than labyrinth seals in a compact space. Brush seals are generally mounted on static components and their flexible bristle tips engage the rotor to form a dynamic seal. In this paper, development of a brush seal mounted on a rotor is discussed. Benefits of this enhancement to brush seal include avoiding localized rubs on the rotor, which reduces heating of a local spot and resulting rotor bow and instabilities. The bristles are angled circumferentially instead of axially and are supported by a conical backplate. Under rotation, the bristles are pushed towards the backplate by the centrifugal force. Seal configurations are designed to fit into interstage and inter-shaft locations. A modeling approach for predicting stiffness and operating stresses in these seals also is outlined. A test setup is developed to characterize the performance of rotating brush seals under engine-representative centrifugal force and pressure differentials. Presented results demonstrate that brush seal can achieve tight effective gaps and desired performance after undergoing initial wear.

Influence of Lubrication Oil on the Performance of Carbon Fibre Brush Seals for Aero-Engines Bearing Chambers

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bilal Outirba ◽  
Patrick Hendrick
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Fibre ◽  
Rotational Speed ◽  
Fibre Length ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Geometrical Parameters ◽  
Labyrinth Seals ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
Lubrication Oil ◽  
Brush Seals ◽  
Aero Engines

Abstract Carbon fibre brush seals are an alternative to labyrinth seals in aero-engines lubrication systems due to better sealing ability with low power loss. However, the use of brush seals still raises concerns about coking issues. In addition, the influence of oil on the brush seal behaviour needs to be fully assessed. This paper provides an experimental investigation of the effect of lubrication oil on the performance of carbon fibre brush seals under static and dynamic conditions. Eight brush seal samples of various geometrical designs were submitted to an environment recreating the working conditions of a modern aero-engine bearing chamber in terms of rotational speed, air pressure, and oil type of injection and temperature. The test results indicated that the performance of carbon fibre brush seals was deeply influenced by the presence of oil within fibres. Oil deeply influences leakage performance, depending on geometrical parameters (density, fibre length and interference) and operating conditions (oil temperature, rotational speed). Brush seal fibre pack is mainly prone to hydrodynamic lift and oil soaking, which is defined by the ability of lubrication oil to fill in properly the interstices between fibres. Viscosity and surface tension may be the key properties influencing oil soaking. Seal torque data corroborates the presence of a hydrodynamic lift. In addition, in absence of differential pressure, seal torque decrease with when oil temperature increases indicates the existence of a critical viscosity. Finally, oil lubrication within the bristles allows reduction of the inter-bristle friction, thus limiting hysteresis.

Fundamental Design Issues of Brush Seals for Industrial Applications

2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saim Dinc ◽  
Mehmet Demiroglu ◽  
Norman Turnquist ◽  
Jason Mortzheim ◽  
Gayle Goetze ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Failure Modes ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Design Criteria ◽  
Seal Design ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
Brush Seals ◽  
As Stress

Advanced seals have been applied to numerous turbine machines over the last decade to improve the performance and output. Industrial experiences have shown that significant benefits can be attained if the seals are designed and applied properly. On the other hand, penalties can be expected if brush seals are not designed correctly. In recent years, attempts have been made to apply brush seals to more challenging locations with high speed (>400 m/s), high temperature (>650 °C), and discontinuous contact surfaces, such as blade tips in a turbine. Various failure modes of a brush seal can be activated under these conditions. It becomes crucial to understand the physical behavior of a brush seal under the operating conditions, and to be capable of quantifying seal life and performance as functions of both operating parameters and seal design parameters. Design criteria are required for different failure modes such as stress, fatigue, creep, wear, oxidation etc. This paper illustrates some of the most important brush seal design criteria and the trade-off of different design approaches.

Fluidic Jet Barriers for Sealing Applications

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon I. Hogg ◽  
Isabel Gomez Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
New Technology ◽  
Internal Flow ◽  
Labyrinth Seal ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Seal Design ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
Fluid Jets ◽  
Flow Features ◽  
Upstream Direction ◽  
Physical Barriers

The turbine industry is continually looking for new developments to improve thermodynamic performance and sealing has received significant attention over the years. Fluidic seals employ aerodynamic flow features to create blockage/loss and reduce leakage, rather than relying on physical barriers to flow such as brush seal bristle packs etc. They are also potentially cheaper to implement than contacting seal technologies such as brush seals. The fundamental mechanism by which fluid jets inclined in an upstream direction produce blockage and reduce the flow along leakage channels are examined in the paper. Computational Fluid Dynamics is used to quantify the net gain in leakage performance that can be achieved in simple channel flow for various operating conditions and jet configurations. These results are used to guide further CFD calculations in which the potential for leakage reduction from adapting conventional labyrinth turbomachinery seal designs to include fluidic jets is investigated. Calculations are carried out for operating conditions that are typical of gas and steam turbine applications, in order to demonstrate the potential of new seal designs of this generic type. The device considered in the paper is essentially a conventional labyrinth seal design which is modified to include internal flow channels within the structure supporting the labyrinth fins, to supply the fluidic jets. The new technology is therefore a modification to an existing component with potential for application in existing turbine designs, requiring no/minimal changes outside of the seal design space to implement.

An Investigation of Flow, Mechanical and Thermal Performance of Conventional and Pressure-Balanced Brush Seals

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Pekris ◽  
Gervas Franceschini ◽  
David R. H. Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Test Rig ◽  
Blow Down ◽  
Active Pressure ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
Seal Design ◽  
Passive Pressure ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
Fuel Consumption Benefit ◽  
Brush Seals ◽  
Secondary Air

Compliant contacting filament seals such as brush seals are well known to give improved leakage performance and hence specific fuel consumption benefit compared to labyrinth seals. The design of the brush seal must be robust across a range of operating pressures, rotor speeds and radial build-offset tolerances. Importantly the wear characteristics of the seal must be well understood to allow a secondary air system suitable for operation over the entire engine life to be designed. A test rig at the University of Oxford is described which was developed for the testing of brush seals at engine-representative speeds, pressures and seal housing eccentricities. The test rig allows the leakage, torque and temperature rise in the rotor to be characterized as functions of the differential pressure(s) across the seal and the speed of rotation. Tests were run on two different geometries of bristle-pack with conventional, passive and active pressure-balanced backing ring configurations. Comparison of the experimental results indicates that the hysteresis inherent in conventional brush seal design could compromise performance (due to increased leakage) or life (due to exacerbated wear) as a result of reduced compliance. The inclusion of active pressure-balanced backing rings in the seal designs are shown to alleviate the problem of bristle-backing ring friction, but this is associated with increased blow-down forces which could result in a significant seal-life penalty. The best performing seal was concluded to be the passive pressure-balanced configuration, which achieves the best compromise between leakage and seal torque. Seals incorporating passive pressure-balanced backing rings are also shown to have improved heat transfer performance in comparison to other designs.

Aerodynamic Flutter of Turbine Brush Seals

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel J. Borgueta ◽  
Nicholas R. Bach ◽  
Jared J. Correia ◽  
Brendan G. J. Egan ◽  
Joshua S. Horton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Steam Turbines ◽  
High Pressure Steam ◽  
Modes Of Failure ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
Pressure Steam ◽  
Brush Seals

With global energy demands continually growing and environmental impacts a major concern in power production, maximizing the efficiencies of power plants is of top priority. EthosEnergy2 has sponsored a project at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth to study and analyze the brush seals in steam turbines in pursuit of increasing steam turbine thermodynamic efficiency. Brush seals are incorporated circumferentially around the turbine blades in their housing. The brush seals provide a very minimal clearance height that compensates for start-up rotor deviation and minimizes high-pressure steam blow-by around the edges of the blades. Brush seals minimize the clearance height between the blades and housing, which allows the turbine to produce more work. However, overtime brush seals can be damaged, greatly reducing efficiency. The seals that are repeatedly showing excessive wear and damage, occur in the high-pressure sections of steam turbines with high Reynolds numbers. The bristle breakdown is attributed to high Reynolds numbers and aerodynamic flutter. The purpose of this research is to design a prototype and empirically model steam turbine conditions with air to map out the fluid-solid interaction, determine the modes of bristle failure, and ultimately reproduce and record bristle flutter. A pressure vessel and pressure system was designed to test linear strips of brush seals with air as the working fluid. The pressure vessel accommodates varying clearance heights to identify the correlation of clearance height and the effects on fluid flow. The system also incorporates a high-speed camera that can capture the phenomena of flutter, precisely identify the modes of failure, and record fluid-solid interaction and the interaction of the bristles with each other. Designing a prototype to empirically model this problem serves as a fundamental and critical step in understanding the fluid interaction with seals in high-pressure steam turbines and will identify brush seal modes of failure. The prototype’s ability to model steam turbine conditions and rapidly test various seal designs will facilitate better brush seal designs to be constructed and will ultimately increase the thermal efficiencies of steam turbines, aid in accommodating the increase in global energy demands, and reduce the detrimental environmental impacts of producing power. The system successfully produced and recorded brush-seal-bristle flutter while modeling high-pressure steam turbine conditions. Matching Reynolds and Euler numbers of the steam turbine stages provided the ability to scale the steam turbine to our prototype, with air as the working fluid. Brush seal breakdown was occurring in steam turbines at Reynolds numbers above 20,000. The prototype repeatedly produced brush seal flutter at Reynolds numbers above 25,000, validating the theory that brush seal breakdown is dependent predominantly on the Reynolds number.

Brush Seal Frictional Heat Generation: Test Rig Design and Validation Under Steam Environment

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Raben ◽  
J. Friedrichs ◽  
J. Flegler
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Heat Generation ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Frictional Heat ◽  
Narrow Gap ◽  
Test Rig ◽  
Frictional Heat Generation ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
Rotor Surface ◽  
Brush Seals

Sealing technology is a key feature to improve efficiency of steam turbines for both new power stations and modernization projects. One of the most powerful sealing alternatives for reducing parasitic leakages in the blade path of a turbine as well as in shaft sealing areas is the use of brush seals, which are also widely used in gas turbines and turbo compressors. The advantage of brush seals over other sealing concepts is based on the narrow gap that is formed between the brush seal bristle tips and the mating rotor surface together with its radial adaptivity. While the narrow gap between the bristle tips and the rotor leads to a strongly decreased flow through the seal compared with conventional turbomachinery seals, it is important to be aware of the tight gap that can be bridged by relative motion between the rotor and the brush seal, leading to a contact of the bristles and the rotor surface. Besides abrasive wear occurrence, the friction between the bristles and the rotor leads to heat generation which can be detrimental to turbine operation due to thermal effects, leading to rotor bending connected to increasing shaft vibrations. In order to investigate the frictional heat generation of brush seals, different investigation concepts have been introduced through the past years. To broaden the knowledge about frictional heat generation and to make it applicable for steam turbine applications, a new testing setup was designed for the steam test rig of the Institute of Jet Propulsion and Turbomachinery - TU Braunschweig, Germany, enabling temperature measurements in the rotor body under stationary and transient operation in steam by using rotor-integrated thermocouples. Within this paper, the development of the instrumented new rotor design and all relevant parts of the new testing setup is shown along with the testing ability by means of the validation of the test rig concept and the achieved measurement accuracy. First results prove that the new system can be used to investigate frictional heat generation of brush seals under conditions relevant for steam turbine shaft seals.

CAE Based Brush Seal Characterization for Stiffness and Stress Levels

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Tolga Duran ◽  
Mahmut F. Aksit ◽  
Murat Ozmusul
Keyword(s):  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Backing Plate ◽  
Seal Design ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
Stress Levels ◽  
Brush Seals ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
State Pressure

Brush seals are complex structures having variety of design parameters, all of which affect the seal behavior under turbine operating conditions. The complicated nature of the seal pack and frictional interactions of rotor, backing plate and bristles result in nonlinear response of the brush seal to variances of design parameters. This study presents CAE based characterization of brush seals, which aims to investigate the main effects of several brush seal design parameters on brush seal stiffness and stress levels. Characterization work of this study includes free-state rotor rub (unpressurized seal), steady state (pressure load without rotor interference) and pressurized-rotor interference conditions.

scholarly journals INVESTIGATION OF A NOVEL PRESSURE-ACTUATED BRUSH SEAL UNDER HOT STEAM CONDITIONS

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 14-26
Author(s):  
Philip Reggentin ◽  
Jens Friedrichs ◽  
Johan Flegler ◽  
Ivan McBean
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Basic Design ◽  
Test Rig ◽  
Brush Seal ◽  
Brush Seals ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Improved Design ◽  
Flexible Operation ◽  
Novel Design

Due to the increasing demand towards flexible operation of conventional power plants also the seals of their turbines have to adapt to varying loads. Based on the basic design of a clamped brush seal, a novel seal with a pressure-actuated backplate is introduced which is capable of combining the advantages of low and high inclined brush seals while avoiding their undesired properties for flexible operation. During preliminary investigations on a test rig operated with compressed air and without rotation, the functionality of the improved design was demonstrated. It is shown that the leakage mass flow was lowered by up to 40% while undesired bristle oscillations were reduced by up to 90% at low pressure differences compared to conventional seal designs. After the adaption of the design for subsequent investigations under realistic conditions comparable to those in a steam turbine, further tests were conducted at TU Braunschweig´s hot steam test rig. Within these investigations the novel design showed improved properties regarding a high leakage performance and an advanced capability to avoid deterioration due to shaft excursions compared to brush seals with fixed backplate design.

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