The research for the recommended flush flow of high-speed mechanical seal with textured side-wall

Abstract

For mechanical seals used in high-speed turbo pumps, it is often observed that the seal face will fail due to high temperatures before excessive wear occurs. The textured side-wall with low dissipation and high heat transfer can effectively extend the life of high-speed mechanical seal. Numerical research is carried out with SST k-$\omega$ model and turbulence dissipation. The numerical results have been validated with published experiments and achieved good validity. The textured side-wall shows an excellent cooling effect over a wide range of flush flow. Even when the flush channel is narrow and flush flow almost non-existent, the reduction in the temperature of seal face is still significant. The flow field and turbulence dissipation of three different channels are analyzed under different flush flow. By means of commonly used design, the maximum temperature of seal face can be reduced by over 40 °C (22.2 %) when flush flow is nearly non-existent. The recommended flush flow is approximately 15 L/min, ignoring the shape of the flow channel. It can simultaneously achieve a more effective cooling effect and a reduction in turbulence dissipation.