Development and Validation of a Segregated Conjugate Heat Transfer Procedure on a sCO2 Dry Gas Seal Test Bench
Authors: Rafanelli Isacco , Generini Giulio , Andreini Antonio , Diurno Tommaso , Girezzi Gabriele , Paggini Andrea 
Published: September 2023

Carbon Dioxide at supercritical state shows particularly favorable thermodynamic properties for closed loop Brayton and Rankine cycles. High density, close to a liquid, and low viscosity, close to a gas, drive to achieve higher energy conversion efficiency with smaller size turbines and components. Since minimizing the sCO2 leakage flows drives to a further increasing of overall efficiency, Dry Gas Seals (DGS) are considered as a key enabling technology for achieving this purpose and for achieving a carbon footprint in line with the increasingly stringent targets. DGSs are gas-lubricated, mechanical, non-contacting, end-face seals, consisting of a mating (rotating) ring and a primary (stationary) ring. The operating equilibrium clearance of the seal is determined by the balance of opening dynamic forces, mainly depending on angular velocity and grooves shape, and closing forces caused by pressure gradients and spring force. Due to high rotational speeds, typical small size sealing gaps (order of magnitude of Micron), high fluid pressure and density, the heat generated by friction through the seal has a large impact on the temperature distribution, therefore a thermal design is needed to stay below the seal allowable temperature; this requirement has been even amplified in the last years with the DGS application to hot turbomachinery.

Nowadays, numerical Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) analysis is a good industrial practice to quantify the thermal distribution in turbomachinery components. On the other hand, due to different order of magnitude of secondary flows cavity sizes and DGS seal gaps, simulating the whole fluid domain with 3D Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) calculation could drive to prohibitive computational costs. In this regard, this paper presents a fast numerical iterative procedure based on a commercial one-dimensional flow network modeler (Altair Flow Simulator), with real gas effects included, coupled with a commercial finite element solver (Ansys Mechanical). Additional 3D CFD simulations are carried out to enhance the predictability of the fluid solver in specific critical areas.

The proposed procedure is applied and validated in a DGS specific test bench designed, owned and operated by Flowserve. The validation data set has been generated operating the DGS in the test bench at 15 different conditions in terms of angular velocity and housing temperature with sCO2 as working fluid aligned with those expected on the unit. Test rig consists of a rotor and housing where the turbomachine operating condition (pressure, speed, temperature and sealing fluid) are mirrored to verify the seal performance. The rig is equipped with test seal and a plug seal mounted in a back-to-back configuration. Data set used for this comparison is composed by thermocouples on the statoric rings, retainers and housing of each seal, operating at five different angular speeds and three minimum levels of housing temperature (100°C, 210 °C and 250° C). These temperatures are designed to mirror turbomachinery conditions around the seal, and, if friction heat is not enough to guarantee them, a series of 18 × 1kW heating elements circumferentially distributed in the test bench housing, are activated.

The nominal operating condition has been considered as the starting point of the model predictions and, there, several sensitivity analyses have been carried out to align the model to test bench measurements; then, the selected configuration has been frozen and used to assess the model performance on other operating conditions. The numerical results have shown a good agreement with experimental data at each operating condition in terms of punctual temperatures previously described and with extremely low computational times.