Research on leakage performance and dynamic characteristics of a novel labyrinth seal with staggered helical teeth structure

Abstract A novel labyrinth seal with staggered helical teeth (SHT) structure is proposed in this paper. The influence of seal clearance, pressure drop, tooth number and eccentricity on the novel model is studied by numerical simulation. In addition, the differences of static characteristics between the labyrinth seal with SHT structure and labyrinth seal with ordinary helical teeth (OHT) structure are also compared and analyzed. The results show that the numerical model for the labyrinth teeth structure has better accuracy compared with the experimental results. The SHT structure has better leakage performance than OHT structure because the former can induce higher turbulent energy dissipation at the staggered position. Besides, the fluid-induced forces increase with the increase of eccentricity and pressure drop. The novel model and corresponding results can provide meaningful references for the research of ring seal structure.