Patent ID: 6435011
Filing Date: 2002-08-20
Classification: F16J

Abstract:
A method for determining if a brush seal is defective, wherein said brush seal has a set of bristles, and wherein the method comprises the steps of:a) empirically determining a stiffness value using a load transducer and a pressure transducer for each of a first plurality of subsets of said set of bristles; b) calculating a variation in stiffness for each of said first plurality of subsets of said set of bristles based on the stiffness values empirically determined in step a), said variation corresponding to a difference in stiffness values between a respective subset and an average of empirically determined stiffness values for a second plurality of subsets; and c) identifying said brush seal as defective if said variation in stiffness calculated in step b) exceeds a predetermined stiffness-variation criteria.