Numerical Simulation and Characteristics Analysis of the Turbine Shaft End Spiral Groove Mechanical Seal

The new spiral groove mechanical seal is a kind of non-contact seals and which can achieve "zero leakage". In recent years, we take it to a wide range of applications in aviation, petrochemical and other fields. This paper uses professional fluid analysis software CFD to build detailed models to analyze performance of spiral groove mechanical seals. It has discussed the influence on the spiral groove mechanical seals performance by different seal structure parameters and working parameters in stable state and the results are compared with experimental data. The results show that no matter pressure difference exists or not, spiral groove can produce pumping effect. There is a great pressure gradient along the radial direction and obviously different pressure distribution between the groove area and the non-groove area. The spiral groove pumping effect not only increases as the shaft speed increases, but also increases as the medium viscosity increases. Compared to the outlet pressure, the effect of inlet on performance of seals is obvious. Carrying capacity of film liquid is inversely proportional to the change of film thickness. The influence of geometric parameters on sealing performance is significant, and sealing performance improvement relies on the optimization design of the geometric structure.