Static and Rotordynamic Characteristics for Two Types of Novel Mixed Liquid Damper Seals With Hole-Pattern/Pocket-Textured Stator and Helically Grooved Rotor
Authors: Li Zhigang , Fang Zhi , Li Jun , Feng Zhenping 
Published: January 2021

Noncontacting liquid annular seals, such as helical groove seals, are widely used at the impeller interstage and shaft end in the liquid turbomachinery to reduce the fluid leakage and stabilize the rotor-bearing system. However, previous literatures have expounded that the helical groove seal possesses the poor sealing property at low rotational speed condition and suffers the rotor instability problem inducing by negative stiffness and damping, which is undesirable for the liquid turbomachinery. In this paper, to obtain the high sealing performance and the reliable rotordynamic capability throughout full operational conditions of machines, two novel mixed liquid damper seals, which possess a hole-pattern/pocket-textured stator matching with a helically grooved rotor, were designed and assessed for the balance piston location in a multiple-stage high-pressure centrifugal liquid pump. To assess the static and rotordynamic characteristics of these two types of mixed liquid damper seals, a three-dimensional (3D) steady computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based method with the multiple reference frame theory was used to predict the seal leakage and drag power loss. Moreover, a novel 3D transient CFD-based perturbation method, based on the multifrequency one-dimensional stator whirling model, the multiple reference frame theory, and the mesh deformation technique, was proposed for the predictions of liquid seal rotordynamic characteristics. The reliability and accuracy of the present numerical methods were demonstrated based on the published experiment data of leakage and rotordynamic force coefficients of a helical groove liquid annular seal and a hole-pattern liquid annular seal. The leakage and rotordynamic force coefficients of these two mixed liquid damper seals were presented at five rotational speeds (0.5 krpm, 2.0 krpm, 4.0 krpm, 6.0 krpm, and 8.0 kpm) with large pressure drop of 25 MPa, and compared with three types of conventional helical groove seals (helical grooves on rotor, stator or both), two typical damper seals (hole-pattern seal, pocket damper seal with smooth rotor), and a mixed helical groove seal. Numerical results show that two novel mixed liquid damper seals both possess generally better sealing capacity than the conventional helical groove seals, especially at lower rotational speeds. The circumferentially isolated cavities (hole/pocket types) on the stator can enhance the “pumping effect” of the helical grooves for mixed helical groove seals, by weakening the swirl flow in seal clearance (which results in the increase of the fluid velocity gradient near the helically grooved rotor). What is more, the helical grooves on rotor also strengthen the dissipation of fluid kinetic energy in the isolated cavities, so the mixed liquid damper seals offer less leakage. Although the mixed liquid damper seals possess a slightly larger (less than 40%) drag power loss, it is acceptable in consideration of the reduced (∼60%) leakage for the high-power turbomachinery, such as the multiple-stage high-pressure centrifugal liquid pump. The present novel mixed liquid damper seals have pronounced rotordynamic stability advantages over the conventional helical groove seals, due to the obviously larger positive stiffness and damping. The mixed liquid damper seal with the hole-pattern stator and the helically grooved rotor (HPS/GR) possesses the lowest leakage and the largest effective damping, especially for higher rotational speeds. From the viewpoint of sealing capacity and rotor stability, the present two novel mixed liquid damper seals have the potential to become the attractive alternative seal designs for the future liquid turbomachinery.