Novel Method of the Seal Aerodynamic Design to Reduce Leakage by Matching the Seal Geometry to Flow Conditions

Abstract

This paper presents a novel method of labyrinth seals design. This method is based on CFD calculations and consists in the analysis of the phenomenon of gas kinetic energy carry-over in the seal chambers between clearances. The design method is presented in two variants. The first variant is designed for seals for which it is impossible to change their external dimensions (length and height). The second variant enables designing the seal geometry without changing the seal length and with a slight change of the seal height. Apart from the optimal distribution of teeth, this variant provides for adjusting chambers geometry to flow conditions. As the result of using both variants such design of the seal geometry with respect to leakage is obtained which enables achieving kinetic energy dissipation as uniform as possible in each chamber of the seal. The method was developed based on numerical calculations and the analysis of the flow phenomena. Calculation examples included in this paper show that the obtained reduction of leakage for the first variant ranges from 3.4% to 15.5%, when compared with the initial geometry. The relation between the number of seal teeth and the leakage rate is also analyzed here. The second variant allows for reduction of leakage rate by 15.4%, when compared with the geometry with the same number of teeth. It is shown that the newly designed geometry reveals almost stable relative reduction of leakage rate irrespective of the pressure ratio upstream and downstream the seal. The efficiency of the used method is proved for various heights of the seal clearance.