Rotordynamic characteristics of a novel labyrinth seal with partition walls and helical groove teeth

To improve the stability of the conventional labyrinth seal (LS), in this paper, four novel fully partitioned helically labyrinth seals (FPHGLS) were designed and they were in comparison with one FPPGLS. The influences of the preswirl ratio and the helical groove pitch on the leakage flow and rotordynamic characteristics were numerically investigated, using the transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method based on the multi-frequency elliptical whirling orbit model. The accuracy and availability of the present transient numerical method were demonstrated based on the experiment data. The results show that the partition walls design can significantly increase the direct damping and cross-coupling stiffness for labyrinth seals and the helical teeth design can significantly decrease the cross-coupling stiffness and tangential force. When the helical groove pitch is equal to the seal length, the leakage nearly remains unchanged. Compared to the baseline design (LS), the FPPGLS and the FPHGLS have similar and significantly larger direct stiffness and direct damping. The two designs possess positive direct stiffness throughout the frequency range. The FPPGLS and FPHGLS possess significantly higher direct damping (∼323.7% larger than LS). But the FPPGLS possesses the largest cross-coupling stiffness among three seals at two preswirl ratios. From preswirl ratio = 0.13–0.84, the cross-coupling stiffness of the FPHGLS decreases by 53.4-310.1% compared with the FPPGLS. Increasing the helical groove pitch increases both direct stiffness and direct damping and reduces cross-coupling stiffness, but it also leads to greater leakage losses. In general, the novel FPHGLS whose helical groove pitch is equal to seal length possesses superior rotordynamic characteristics and similar leakage characteristic. This work provides the reference of the seal design and safety operation for the turbomachinery.