scholarly journals Effects of Uncertainty and Quasi-Chaotic Geometry on the Leakage of Brush Seals

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Fuchs ◽  
Oskar J. Haidn

This article presents a brief review of the experimental and theoretical state of the art regarding the leakage flow prediction of brush seals. The authors model a computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based approach for the leakage flow of brush seals. The brush seal is treated by modeling its real geometrical structure, namely numerous bristles in an array in transverse flow. The fluid domain is segregated into discrete volumes surrounding each bristle. Two different discretization schemes are chosen to study their influence on the leakage behavior. Furthermore, for each scheme multiple inter-bristle distances, pressure ratios and turbulence models are evaluated. In addition, the influence of irregular arrangement configurations, which forms a quasi-chaotic inner structure, is studied. The results gained are compared to other authors' experimental and numerical data.

Author(s):  
Lilas Deville ◽  
Mihai Arghir

Brush seals are a mature technology that has generated extensive experimental and theoretical work. Theoretical models range from simple correlations with experimental results to advanced numerical approaches coupling the bristles deformation with the flow in the brush. The present work follows this latter path. The bristles of the brush are deformed by the pressure applied by the flow, by the interference with the rotor and with the back plate. The bristles are modeled as linear beams but a nonlinear numerical algorithm deals with the interferences. The brush with its deformed bristles is then considered as an anisotropic porous medium for the leakage flow. Taking into account, the variation of the permeability with the local geometric and flow conditions represents the originality of the present work. The permeability following the principal directions of the bristles is estimated from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations. A representative number of bristles are selected for each principal direction and the CFD analysis domain is delimited by periodicity and symmetry boundary conditions. The parameters of the CFD analysis are the local Reynolds number and the local porosity estimated from the distance between the bristles. The variations of the permeability are thus deduced for each principal direction and for Reynolds numbers and porosities characteristic for brush seal. The leakage flow rates predicted by the present approach are compared with experimental results from the literature. The results depict also the variations of the pressures, of the local Reynolds number, of the permeability, and of the porosity through the entire brush seal.


2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sowjanya Vijiapurapu ◽  
Jie Cui

The Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations were solved along with three turbulence models, namely κ-ε, κ-ω, and Reynolds stress models (RSM), to study the fully developed turbulent flows in circular pipes roughened by repeated square ribs. The spacing between the ribs was varied to form three representative types of surface roughness; d–type, intermediate, and k–type. Solutions of these flows at two Reynolds numbers were obtained using the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software Fluent. The numerical results were validated against experimental measurements and other numerical data published in literature. Extensive investigation of effects of rib spacing and Reynolds number on the pressure and friction resistance, flow and turbulence distribution was presented. The performance of three turbulence models was also compared and discussed.


Author(s):  
Yuanqiao Zhang ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Xin Yan ◽  
Zhigang Li

The leakage characteristics of interference and clearance brush seals were experimentally measured and numerically simulated in this paper. The leakage coefficients of the brush seals without a deflector plate at different pressure differentials were firstly measured. The effect of deflector plate and clearance on seal performance and the detailed flow field of the brush seal were numerically investigated using three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solutions coupled with a Non-Darcian Porous Medium model. In addition, this study experimentally investigated the hysteresis characteristic of interference and clearance brush seals without deflector plates, and presented detailed investigations on the blow down effect of clearance brush seal using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as mentioned above and Finite Element Method (FEM) approaches. The obtained results show that the leakage coefficient and blow-down effect of the brush seal with a deflector plate is lower than that of the brush seal without a deflector plate at the same pressure difference and the clearance between the bristle pack and shaft will increase the leakage coefficient significantly. The different hysteresis characteristics of interference and clearance brush seals are illustrated and discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 881-883 ◽  
pp. 1823-1826
Author(s):  
Li Dai ◽  
Li Bin Yang ◽  
Kai Liu

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation is expected to give detailed flow information which is important for stirred reactor design and optimization, however accurate flow prediction remains a challenge for CFD application. In the present paper, influence of discretization scheme on the flow prediction in a stirred reactor with Rushton turbine was investigated. Standardk-εturbulent model and MRF model was adopted and numerical results obtained by using three different discretization schemes were compared. Results showed that the numerical results agreed well with data provided in literature. It is acceptable to use any discreticaiton method if aiming at a general flow field, while QUICK is recommended considering the more detailed flow information.


Author(s):  
Jun Li ◽  
Bo Qiu ◽  
Zhenping Feng

The leakage rate of the labyrinth brush seal was experimentally measured and numerically investigated in this paper. Four different rotational speeds of 0, 1500, 2400 and 3000 rpm were utilized to investigate the effects on the leakage rate of the labyrinth brush seal. In addition, five different pressure ratios and two initial clearances were also adopted to study the influences of pressure ratio and clearance size on the leakage rate of the labyrinth brush seal. The leakage rates of the experimental labyrinth brush seal at different rotational speeds, pressure ratios, and initial clearances were also predicted using Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solutions coupling with a non-Darcian porous medium model. The rotor centrifugal growth and bristle blow-down effects were considered in the present numerical research. The rotor centrifugal growth at different rotational speeds was calculated using the finite element method (FEM). The variation of the sealing clearance size with rotor centrifugal growth and bristle blow-down was analyzed. The numerical leakage rate was in good agreement with the experimental data. The effects of rotational speeds, pressure ratios, and clearance sizes on the leakage flow characteristics of brush seals were also investigated based on the experimental data and numerical results. The detailed leakage flow fields and pressure distributions of the brush seals were also presented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dengqian Ma ◽  
Yuanqiao Zhang ◽  
Zhigang Li ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Xin Yan

Abstract To accurately predict the leakage flow and resistance characteristics of brush seals, the multiblock structured mesh and the mesh motion technique are applied to the three-dimensional (3D) staggered tube bundle model of brush seals. The multiblock structured mesh can easily add nodes and set boundary layers in the interbristle gap between adjacent bristles, which can ensure good mesh quality (orthogonal angle and expansion ratio). The mesh motion technique realizes the overall axial compactness of the bristle pack. The effects of pressure ratio Rp, sealing clearance c, and bristle pack compactness on the leakage flow and resistance characteristics are investigated. To analyze the aerodynamic resistance of the brush seals, Euler number (Eu) is applied in this study. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental data. Thus, the accuracy of the presented numerical method is validated. For the contacting brush seal, ΔSx, i has a significant effect on the leakage flow rate reduction. For the clearance brush seal, ΔSx, i has little effect on the leakage flow rate reduction. The leakage flow passing through the sealing clearance keeps almost constant. As for aerodynamic resistance, the presence of the sealing clearance can effectively convert the pressure energy of the leakage flow into the kinetic energy. As a result, the leakage flow velocity exiting the bristle pack of the clearance brush seal is 1.5 to 2.0 times larger than that of the contacting brush seal. Although the existence of the sealing clearance obviously increases the leakage flow rate, it effectively reduces the aerodynamic forces acting on the bristles. The developed numerical approach based on the three-dimensional staggered tube bundle model and multiblock structured mesh can serve as a technical method for analysis of the sealing mechanisms of brush seals.


Author(s):  
Jun Li ◽  
Yangzi Huang ◽  
Zhigang Li ◽  
Zhenping Feng ◽  
Hong Yang ◽  
...  

Numerical investigations of leakage flow fields of two kinds of brush seals with four sealing clearances were conducted in this paper. The Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and non-Darcian porous medium model solutions were applied as the numerical approach to analyze the flow characteristics of brush seal. The reliability and accuracy of the RANS and non-Darcian porous medium model for leakage flow in brush seals were established by comparison with the experimental data. The referenced labyrinth seal was changed into a multi-stage brush seal which has two configurations. One configuration had a traditional geometrical structure. The other had a shim structure installed between the front plate and brush bristle pack. The leakage flow rates of the brush seal with two different configurations were calculated for four bristle pack tip clearances (0mm, 0.1mm, 0.3mm, 0.5mm) which were compared with the results for the referenced labyrinth seal. The numerical results show that the leakage flow rate increases rapidly with the increasing of clearance between the bristle pack tip and the rotor surface for two kinds of brush seals. The sealing performance of the brush seal with shim structure is similar to that of the traditional design with the same sealing clearance and flow conditions. In addition, as compared with the traditional brush seal, the brush seal with shim structure can reduce the pressure difference between the bristle free and fence height at 0.3mm and 0.5mm sealing clearance. The leakage flow patterns in brush seals with two different configurations were also illustrated.


Author(s):  
Dengqian Ma ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Yuanqiao Zhang ◽  
Zhigang Li ◽  
Xin Yan ◽  
...  

The blade tip shroud brush seal is applied to replace the labyrinth seal for the aerodynamic performance improvement of turbine stage. The leakage flow characteristics of the brush seal are numerically predicted by using the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes equations and non-linear Darcian porous medium model. The numerical leakage flow rate of the brush seal is in well agreement with the experimental data. The last and first long teeth of the labyrinth seal were designed to bristle pack named as the postposed and preposed brush seals based on the 1.5 turbine stage. The leakage flow rate and aerodynamic performance of the turbine stage with blade tip shroud labyrinth seal and brush seal are numerically investigated. The effect of the sealing clearance between bristle pack and tip shroud on the aerodynamic performance of turbine stage is conducted which ranged from 0 mm to 0.4 mm. The axial deflection of the bristle pack is analyzed with consideration of the aerodynamic forces and contact frictional force. The obtained results show that the leakage flow rate of the tip shroud brush seals with bristle tip 0.4 mm clearance which decreases by up to 18% in comparison with the labyrinth seal, and the aerodynamic efficiency increases by 0.6%. Compared to the tip labyrinth seal, tip shroud brush seals can decrease the relative deflection angle of exit flow. This flow behavior results in reducing the mixing loss between the tip leakage flow and mainstream. The similar axial deflection of the bristle pack for two kinds of brush seals is observed at the same sealing clearance. The deflection of the bristle pack under the function of the aerodynamic forces is protected by the backing plate. This work provides the theoretical basis and technical support for the brush seal application in the turbine industries.


Author(s):  
Jun Li ◽  
Bo Qiu ◽  
Shengke Jiang ◽  
Xianglin Kong ◽  
Zhenping Feng

The leakage rate of the labyrinth brush seal was experimentally measured and numerically investigated in this paper. Four different rotational speeds with 0, 1500, 2400 and 3000 rpm were utilized to investigate the effects on the leakage rate of the labyrinth brush seal. In addition, five different pressure ratios and two initial clearances were also adopted to study the influences of pressure ratio and clearance size on the leakage rate of the labyrinth brush seal. The leakage rate of experimental labyrinth brush seal at different rotational speeds, pressure ratios and initial clearances were also predicted using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solution coupling with non-Darcian porous medium model. The rotor centrifugal growth and bristle blow-down effects were considered in the present numerical research. The rotor centrifugal growth at different rotational speeds was calculated using Finite Element Method (FEM). The variation of sealing clearance size with rotor centrifugal growth and bristle blow-down was analyzed. The numerical leakage rate was in good agreement with the experimental data. The effects of rotational speeds, pressure ratios and clearance sizes on the leakage flow characteristics of brush seals were also investigated based on the experimental data and numerical results. The detailed leakage flow fields and pressure distributions of brush seals were also presented.


Aerospace ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Xiaolei Song ◽  
Meihong Liu ◽  
Xiangping Hu ◽  
Xueliang Wang ◽  
Taohong Liao ◽  
...  

In order to improve efficiency in turbomachinery, brush seal replaces labyrinth seals widely in the secondary air system. A 2-d staggered tube bank model is adopted to simulate the gas states and the pressure character in brush seal, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to solve the model in this paper. According to the simulation results, the corrected formula of the Euler number and dimensionless pressure are given. The results show that gas expands when flow through the bristle pack, and the gas expansion closes to an isotherm process. The dynamic pressure increases with decreasing static pressure. The Euler number can reflect the seal performance of brush seals in leakage characteristics. Compared with increasing the number of rows, the reduction of the gap is a higher-efficiency method to increase the Euler number. The Euler number continually increases as the gap decreases. However, with the differential pressure increasing, Euler number first increases and then decreases as the number of rows increases. Finally, the pressure distribution on the surface of end rows is asymmetric, and it may increase the friction between the bristles and the back plate.


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