Performance Study On Fluid Field And Temperature Field Of Friction Interface In A Mechanical Seal

Along with fast development of industry, the temperature rise of interface generated on mechanical seal friction interface under the operating conditions like high temperature, high pressure and high rotate speed, will cause abnormal abrasion, thermal-crack, distortion of seal rings, vaporization of fluid film in the clearance and final failure of seal. So analysis on the temperature field of friction interface is very significant.Due to osculating correlation of flow and heat transfer, three-dimensional numerical studies with CFD software for the fluid field in seal cavity and temperature field of friction interface are presented. The liquid in seal cavity and friction interface clearance is studied. Firstly, the fluid field of the whole seal cavity is presented by solving three-dimensional N-S equations, the flow process from entrance to interface clearance is analyzed,and the pressure distribution, speed distribution, particle track, swirling distribution are obtained. Then, the temperature distribution of seal cavity and friction interface and the influence factors for temperature rise are analyzed by solving energy equations. The temperature distribution and influence factors for temperature rise of both contact seal and the spiral groove seal are analyzed contrastively.Three-dimensional configuration mesh for the liquid in seal cavity and friction interface clearance is applied. It solves the problem of transition of mesh element from macro to micro size. The commercial software make the simulations of flow development and heat transfer visible and explicit, and they can be available for parameter and performance optimization designs of seals, also they lay the foundation for studying the thermal distortion of seal rings.