Finite Element Analysis Of U-Spring Seal Ring For Single Point Mooring System

The single point mooring system is a very important mechanical structural component of the offshore oil exploration platform—the floating production storage and offloading tanker.The main function of the single point mooring system is to moor a floating storage tanker and crude oil will also be transported to the tanker via this at the same time.Therefore,it is essential to improve the sealing performance between the inner and outer ring contact surfaces of the single point mooring system and to improve the sealing ability of the crude oil transmission link.First of all,this paper briefly introduced the research status of seals at home and abroad and analyzed the sealing principle of static or dynamic sealing conditions.At the same time,the reasons and the criteria for the failure of the seal under different working conditions were described.Secondly,the finite element simulation analysis of the U-spring seal was mainly carried out by means of ANSYS.The main tasks in this section were:1)The contact pressure and equivalent stress of the seal ring was simulated.It mainly analyzed the influence of the change of parameters such as the initial installation interference of the sealing ring,the liquid working pressure,and the copper content in copper modified polytetrafluoroethylene on the contact pressure and equivalent stress of the sealing ring.The simulation results show that the contact pressure between the contact surfaces on both sides of the U-spring seal is always greater than the pressure of the sealing medium when the seal works under different conditions.So it has a good sealing performance.2)The temperature simulation analysis of the U-spring seal is carried out.By changing the friction coefficient,the liquid working pressure,the initial installation interference,the working temperature of the liquid,the rotational speed,and the value of the copper content in the material of the U-spring seal,the influence of the variation of different parameter variables on the overall temperature distribution of the sealing ring was studied.According to the simulation results,we can get the conclusion that the temperature field distribution state of the sealing ring is obviously affected by the above parameters.In the dynamic seals system,the maximum temperature of the seal can be reduced by reducing the coefficient of friction between the contact faces.3)By considering the influence of temperature change on the Young’s modulus of PTFE material,the thermal structure coupling analysis of the U-spring seal was carried out by means of ANSYS software.It mainly studied the influence of the shaft speed of the rotating shaft,the temperature of the sealing medium and the friction coefficient between the contact pairs on the coupling stress of the thermal structure of the sealing ring.Although the change of the above parameters causes the change of the contact pressure value between the sealing contact surfaces,the results show that the contact pressure between them is still greater than the working pressure of the sealing medium when it works in the working condition of single point mooring system.So the sealing performance can be ensured when the U-spring seal works in this working condition.