Gas Seal Performance and Start up Condition Enhancing with Different Seal Groove Geometries

New dry gas seal “DGS” groove geometry has been developed, using a verified three dimensional simulations. The effect of the various groove profiles; standard spiral, tapered-spiral, spiral with an annulus and tapered-spiral with an annulus were studied at wide range of operating speed. The results indicate that, tapered type spiral groove causes a reduction in opening force and in the leakage rate. In addition, increasing the taper angle reduces the temperature distribution inside the gas film and reduces the thermal stresses on the seal mating rings. The combined use of annuals and taper spiral groove decrease the leakage rate for spiral DGS with annular groove only. The final optimized spiral tapered seal with annuals reduces the leakage rate by 18.5% from standard seal, ensures uniform pressure distribution and hydrostatic lift at low speeds, resulting in low torque and reliable operating at start-up condition.