Patent ID: 9745857
Date: 2017-08-29
CPC Classifications: F01D,F05D,F16J

Claim:
1. A seal arrangement comprising: a seal runner mounted to a rotary component of a gas turbine engine for rotation about an axis, the seal runner having a sealing lip extending radially outwardly away from the axis between a root portion and a tip portion; and a static seal mounted in axially opposed facing relationship to the sealing lip to provide sealing between a first and a second zone, the static seal and the sealing lip defining an axial gap therebetween, the sealing lip disposed axially between the first and second zones, the first zone having a first temperature (T 1 ) and the second zone having a second temperature (T 2 ), T 1 being greater than T 2 , the difference of temperature between the first and second zones providing a temperature gradient (T 1 −T 2 ) across the sealing lip and causing the sealing lip to flex in a first direction (A 1 ) towards the second zone, the sealing lip being geometrically configured to have a localized point of flexion between the root portion and the tip portion to allow the sealing lip to flex relative to the axial gap under centrifugal loads, the sealing lip having a center of gravity disposed radially outwardly from the point of flexion by a first predetermined amount and axially offset from the point of flexion towards the second zone by a second predetermined amount to cause the sealing lip to flex under the centrifugal loads in a second direction (A 2 ) opposite to the first direction (A 1 ) towards the first zone, thereby at least partially mitigating the thermal flexion induced by the temperature gradient (T 1 −T 2 ) across the sealing lip.