Experimental measurements of the thermo elastic behavior of a dry gas seal operating with logarithmic spiral grooves of 11° and 15°

Author(s):  
Alfredo Chávez ◽  
Oscar De Santiago

This work shows the experimental thermo elastic behavior of the stationary ring of a dry gas seal with logarithmic spiral grooves of 15° (common commercial configuration) and 11° spiral (configuration evaluated to confirm analytical predictions developed on previous works), as well as the hydrodynamic pressure of the fluid film. The stationary ring temperature is obtained through an array of sensors embedded in the ring and the ring deformation, resulting from the thermal and mechanical load, is collected by two strain gages. The hydrodynamic pressure produced in the fluid film is measured using dynamic pressure sensors. Two novel instrumentation methods are defined to collect the ring deformation and the dynamic pressure of the seal. The results show that the seal with spiral grooves of 11° at low speed presents a temperature increment induced by the contact between the rings; this contact may induce the premature fault of the rings, so that the 11° spiral seal needs more speed than the spiral of 15° to enter a hydrodynamic lubrication regime. The experiments show that the stationary ring distortion is induced by the temperature gradient and by the hydrostatic and hydrodynamic pressure; however, the thermal distortion of the ring is dominant for the current experimental conditions. The ring’s axial distortion also affects the seal static and dynamic performance due to the modification of the hydrodynamic regime.

2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (6) ◽  
pp. 777-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna M. Meyer, ◽  
John A. Tichy,

Formulation of a 3-D lubrication simulation of a total hip replacement in vivo is presented using a finite difference approach. The goal is to determine if hydrodynamic lubrication is taking place, how thick the joint fluid film is and over what percentage of two gait cycles, (walking and bicycling), the hydrodynamic lubricating action is occurring, if at all. The assumption of rigid surfaces is made, which is conservative in the sense that pure hydrodynamic lubrication is well known to predict thinner films than elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) for the same loading. The simulation method includes addressing the angular velocity direction changes and accurate geometry configuration for the acetabular cup and femoral head components and provides a range of results for material combinations of CoCrMo-on-UHMWPE, CoCrMo-on-CoCrMo, and alumina-on-alumina components. Results are in the form of the joint fluid film pressure distributions, load components and film thicknesses of the joint fluid, for the gait cycles of walking and bicycling. Results show hydrodynamic action occurs in only about 10% of a walking gait cycle and throughout nearly 90% of a bicycling gait. During the 10% of the walking cycle that develops hydrodynamic lubrication, the minimum fluid film thicknesses are determined to be between 0.05 μm and 1.1 μm, while the range of film thicknesses for bicycling is between 0.1 μm and 1.4 μm, and occurs over 90% of the bicycling gait. Pressure distributions for these same periods are in the range of 2 MPa to 870 MPa for walking and 1 MPa to 24 MPa for bicycling.


Author(s):  
Alfredo Chávez ◽  
Oscar De Santiago

Dry gas seals represent a significant advancement in turbo machinery due to their ability to handle high pressures and speeds without the use of external sealing fluids, such as oil or water, thus reducing contamination and increasing reliability. Despite their widespread use, internal working mechanisms are not fully understood to date, in particular regarding fluid film thickness prediction, which is an essential component of the seal design. The axial deflection of the rotating and stationary rings in a dry gas seal affects the development of the fluid film formed between the ring faces of the seal, influencing the performance of the seal during its operation, as well as leakage of the seal when it is at rest. The hydrodynamic and hydrostatic pressure fields of the fluid film, together with temperature gradients in the rings, induce axial deflection of these components. This in turn modifies the pressure field developed in the film. This paper focuses on establishing a methodology to couple the deformation field and the dynamic behavior of the fluid film (pressure and temperature fields) through numerical computations. Analytical relationships are employed to obtain the thermo-elastic deflection of the seal rings in the axial direction and this distortion is used in the numerical methodology to accelerate the prediction of the seal behavior. The coupled seal ring-fluid film dynamic system with 11° and 15° spiral angle is stable because the axial deflection calculated from numerical analysis produces a converging radial taper in the direction of the flow (producing a net opening force). An important result of this work is that the predicted magnitude of the axial deflection (as a result of pressure and temperature effects) under thermal and pressure loads on the stationary and rotating rings is smaller but of the same order of magnitude as the fluid film thickness.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1609
Author(s):  
Donghyun Hwang ◽  
Kyubok Ahn

An experimental study was performed to investigate the combustion instability characteristics of swirl-stabilized combustors. A premixed gas composed of ethylene and air was burned under various flow and geometric conditions. Experiments were conducted by changing the inlet mean velocity, equivalence ratio, swirler vane angle, and combustor length. Two dynamic pressure sensors, a hot-wire anemometer, and a photomultiplier tube were installed to detect the pressure oscillations, velocity perturbations, and heat release fluctuations in the inlet and combustion chambers, respectively. An ICCD camera was used to capture the time-averaged flame structure. The objective was to understand the relationship between combustion instability and the Rayleigh criterion/the flame structure. When combustion instability occurred, the pressure oscillations were in-phase with the heat release oscillations. Even if the Rayleigh criterion between the pressure and heat release oscillations was satisfied, stable combustion with low pressure fluctuations was possible. This was explained by analyzing the dynamic flow and combustion data. The root-mean-square value of the heat release fluctuations was observed to predict the combustion instability region better than that of the inlet velocity fluctuations. The bifurcation of the flame structure was a necessary condition for combustion instability in this combustor. The results shed new insight into combustion instability in swirl-stabilized combustors.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (22) ◽  
pp. 7493
Author(s):  
Krystian L. Wlodarczyk ◽  
William N. MacPherson ◽  
Duncan P. Hand ◽  
M. Mercedes Maroto-Valer

In situ measurements are highly desirable in many microfluidic applications because they enable real-time, local monitoring of physical and chemical parameters, providing valuable insight into microscopic events and processes that occur in microfluidic devices. Unfortunately, the manufacturing of microfluidic devices with integrated sensors can be time-consuming, expensive, and “know-how” demanding. In this article, we describe an easy-to-implement method developed to integrate various “off-the-shelf” fiber optic sensors within microfluidic devices. To demonstrate this, we used commercial pH and pressure sensors (“pH SensorPlugs” and “FOP-MIV”, respectively), which were “reversibly” attached to a glass microfluidic device using custom 3D-printed connectors. The microfluidic device, which serves here as a demonstrator, incorporates a uniform porous structure and was manufactured using a picosecond pulsed laser. The sensors were attached to the inlet and outlet channels of the microfluidic pattern to perform simple experiments, the aim of which was to evaluate the performance of both the connectors and the sensors in a practical microfluidic environment. The bespoke connectors ensured robust and watertight connection, allowing the sensors to be safely disconnected if necessary, without damaging the microfluidic device. The pH SensorPlugs were tested with a pH 7.01 buffer solution. They measured the correct pH values with an accuracy of ±0.05 pH once sufficient contact between the injected fluid and the measuring element (optode) was established. In turn, the FOP-MIV sensors were used to measure local pressure in the inlet and outlet channels during injection and the steady flow of deionized water at different rates. These sensors were calibrated up to 140 mbar and provided pressure measurements with an uncertainty that was less than ±1.5 mbar. Readouts at a rate of 4 Hz allowed us to observe dynamic pressure changes in the device during the displacement of air by water. In the case of steady flow of water, the pressure difference between the two measuring points increased linearly with increasing flow rate, complying with Darcy’s law for incompressible fluids. These data can be used to determine the permeability of the porous structure within the device.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Pelosi ◽  
Monika Ivantysynova

The piston/cylinder interface of swash plate–type axial piston machines represents one of the most critical design elements for this type of pump and motor. Oscillating pressures and inertia forces acting on the piston lead to its micro-motion, which generates an oscillating fluid film with a dynamically changing pressure distribution. Operating under oscillating high load conditions, the fluid film between the piston and cylinder has simultaneously to bear the external load and to seal the high pressure regions of the machine. The fluid film interface physical behavior is characterized by an elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication regime. Additionally, the piston reciprocating motion causes fluid film viscous shear, which contributes to a significant heat generation. Therefore, to fully comprehend the piston/cylinder interface fluid film behavior, the influences of heat transfer to the solid boundaries and the consequent solid boundaries’ thermal elastic deformation cannot be neglected. In fact, the mechanical bodies’ complex temperature distribution represents the boundary for nonisothermal fluid film flow calculations. Furthermore, the solids-induced thermal elastic deformation directly affects the fluid film thickness. To analyze the piston/cylinder interface behavior, considering the fluid-structure interaction and thermal problems, the authors developed a fully coupled simulation model. The algorithm couples different numerical domains and techniques to consider all the described physical phenomena. In this paper, the authors present in detail the computational approach implemented to study the heat transfer and thermal elastic deformation phenomena. Simulation results for the piston/cylinder interface of an existing hydrostatic unit are discussed, considering different operating conditions and focusing on the influence of the thermal aspect. Model validation is provided, comparing fluid film boundary temperature distribution predictions with measurements taken on a special test bench.


2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 433-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Ferrara ◽  
Lorenzo Ferrari ◽  
Leonardo Baldassarre

The rotating stall is a key problem for achieving a good working range of a centrifugal compressor and a detailed understanding of the phenomenon is very important to anticipate and avoid it. Many experimental tests have been planned by the authors to investigate the influence on stall behavior of different geometrical configurations. A stage with a backward channel upstream, a 2-D impeller with a vaneless diffuser and a constant cross-section volute downstream, constitute the basic configuration. Several diffuser types with different widths, pinch shapes, and diffusion ratios were tested. The stage was instrumented with many fast response dynamic pressure sensors so as to characterize inception and evolution of the rotating stall. This kind of analysis was carried out both in time and in frequency domains. The methodology used and the results on phenomenon evolution will be presented and discussed in this article.


Machines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 326
Author(s):  
Huiyan Zhang ◽  
Fan Meng ◽  
Yunhao Zheng ◽  
Yanjun Li

To reduce cavitation-induced pressure fluctuations in a mixed-flow pump under impeller inflow distortion, the dynamic pressure signal at different monitoring points of a mixed-flow pump with a dustpan-shaped inlet conduit under normal and critical cavitation conditions was collected using high-precision digital pressure sensors. Firstly, the nonuniformity of the impeller inflow caused by inlet conduit shape was characterized by the time–frequency-domain spectra and statistical characteristics of pressure fluctuation at four monitoring points (P4–P7) circumferentially distributed at the outlet of the inlet conduit. Then, the cavity distribution on the blade surface was captured by a stroboscope. Lastly, the characteristics of cavitation-induced pressure fluctuation were obtained by analyzing the time–frequency-domain spectra and statistical characteristic values of dynamic pressure signals at the impeller inlet (P1), guide vanes inlet (P2), and guide vanes outlet (P3). The results show that the flow distribution of impeller inflow is asymmetric. The pav values at P4 and P6 were the smallest and largest, respectively. Compared with normal conditions, the impeller inlet pressure is lower under critical cavitation conditions, which leads to low pav, pp-p and a main frequency amplitude at P1. In addition, the cavity covered the whole suction side under H = 13.6 m and 15.5 m, which led the pp-p and dominant frequency amplitude of pressure fluctuation at P2 and P3 under critical cavitation to be higher than that under normal conditions.


Author(s):  
Shuangbiao Liu ◽  
W. Wayne Chen ◽  
Diann Y. Hua

Step bearings are frequently used in industry for better load capacity. Analytical solutions to the Rayleigh step bearing and a rectangular slider with a finite width are available in literature, but none for a fan-shaped thrust step bearing. This study starts with a known solution to the Laplace equation in a cylindrical coordinate system, which is in the form of infinite summation. An analytical solution to pressure is derived in this paper for hydrodynamic lubrication problems encountered in the fan-shaped step bearing. The presented solutions can be useful for designers to maximize bearing performance as well as for researchers to benchmark numerical lubrication models.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 1647-1661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiana Delprete ◽  
Abbas Razavykia ◽  
Paolo Baldissera

This article presents a detailed analytical model to evaluate piston skirt tribology under hydrodynamic lubrication. The contribution of the piston ring pack lubrication has been taken into account to study piston secondary motion and tribological performance. A system of nonlinear equations comprising Reynolds equation and force equilibrium is solved to calculate piston ring pack friction force and its moment about wrist pin axis. Instantaneous minimum oil film thickness at piston ring/liner interface has been estimated considering different boundary conditions: full Sommerfeld, oil separation, and Reynolds cavitation and reformation. The ring pack model has capability to be used for a wide range of ring face profiles under boundary and hydrodynamic lubrication. Piston secondary motion is evaluated using lubrication theory and equilibrium of forces and moments, to examine the effect of wrist pin location, piston skirt/liner clearance, and oil rheology. Numerical method and finite difference scheme have been used to define piston eccentricity and hydrodynamic pressure acting over the skirt.


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