Frictional heat generation and seismic radiation in a foam rubber model of earthquakes

2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yahya Dogu ◽  
Mahmut F. Aksit

Brush seals are designed to survive transient rotor rubs. Inherent brush seal flexibility reduces frictional heat generation. However, high surface speeds combined with thin rotor sections may result in local hot spots. Considering large surface area and accelerated oxidation rates, frictional heat at bristle tips is another major concern especially in challenging high-temperature applications. This study investigates temperature distribution in a brush seal as a function of frictional heat generation at bristle tips. The two-dimensional axisymmetric computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis includes the permeable bristle pack as a porous medium allowing fluid flow throughout the bristle matrix. In addition to effective flow resistance coefficients, isotropic effective thermal conductivity as a function of temperature is defined for the bristle pack. Employing a fin approach for a single bristle, a theoretical analysis has been developed after outlining the brush seal heat transfer mechanism. Theoretical and CFD analysis results are compared. To ensure coverage for various seal designs and operating conditions, several frictional heat input cases corresponding to different seal stiffness values have been studied. Frictional heat generation is outlined to introduce a practical heat flux input into the analysis model. Effect of seal stiffness on nominal bristle tip temperature has been evaluated. Analyses show a steep temperature rise close to bristle tips that diminishes further away. Heat flux conducted through the bristles dissipates into the flow by a strong convection at the fence-height region.


Author(s):  
Mehmet Demiroglu ◽  
John A. Tichy

Brush seals are considered as a category of compliant seals, which tolerate a great high level of interference between the seal and the rotor or shaft. Their superior leakage characteristics have opened many application fields in the turbo-machinery world, ranging from industrial steam turbines to jet engines. However, brush seal designers have to find a trade-off between the lower parasitic leakage but higher heat generation properties of brush seals for given operation conditions. As brush seals can maintain contact with the rotor for a wide range of operating conditions, the contact force/pressure generated at the seal-rotor interface becomes an important design parameter for sustained seal performance and longevity of its service life. Furthermore, due to this contact force at the interface, frictional heat generation is inevitable and must be evaluated for various design and operating conditions. In this paper, frictional heat generation at the sealrotor interface is studied. To capture temperature rise at the interface, a thermal image of the seal and rotor is taken with an infrared camera under various operating conditions. The temperature map of the rotor is compared to results from thermal finite element analysis of the rotor to back calculate the heat flux to the rotor. A closed form equation for frictional heat generation is suggested as a function of seal design parameters, material properties, friction coefficient and empirical factors from testing.


Author(s):  
M. Raben ◽  
J. Friedrichs ◽  
J. Flegler

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.


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