• Plant Journal
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.56-63
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• 2011

The identifying cause of leakage problems on mechanical seal in a feed water pump of power plant have been difficult because of technical limits of domestic mechanical seal manufacturer and the various conditions of power plants. This paper can get a conclusion through the consideration study and experiment test of mechanical seal characteristics of feed water pump depending on oxygen treatment as follows. The oxygen treatment increase dissolved oxygen and cause a corrosion on the mechanical seal stationary ring composed of antimony as well as leakage problems. For solving leakage problems of seal, to eliminate dissolved oxygen in the cooling water of seal with hydrazine injection can prevent leakage problems of mechanical seal in feed water pump.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2007

The mechanical face seal has been tested in Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARl) for turbopump applications. In the turbopump under current development, the mechanical face seal is installed between fuel pump and turbine to prevent a mixture of fuel and combustion gas. Generally the mechanical face seal in turbopump is exposed to severe environment because of great rotational speed, high temperature of combustion gas and high level of pressure difference. Thus a series of tests were performed to guarantee the reliability of mechanical face seal by means of simulating the practical operating conditions. The tests were conducted up to 20,000 rpm with pressure difference of 800 kPa and temperature of 620 K In addition several carbon materials for mechanical face seal were conducted to the tests to compare the life time. During the tests, the performance against leakage was monitored and the carbon wear was also measured to estimate the life of a mechanical face seal The results show that the leakage flow rates of mechanical face seal is ignorable compared to an overall flow rate of fuel pump. The carbon material which has the finest wear resistance was found during the tests. Lastly no critical failure of mechanical face seal was found during the tests and the reliability of mechanical face seal for turbopump was successfully proved.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.314-321
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• 2004

Thermal distortion of non-contacting mechanical seals with inclined rubbing surfaces is affected by friction heat between seal ring and seal seat. The circulation fluid along the inclined rubbing surfaces maintains cooling friction heat and lubrication between the sealing surfaces of mechanical seal with an inclined surface. Mechanical seals with inclined sealing surfaces may be useful for reducing the frictional heating and power loss because of the introduction of cooling fluids to the sealing gap between seal ring and seal seat. From the FEM computed result shows that the thermal behavior and von Mises stress of sealing faces with an inclined angle 60 are much reduced in comparison of the conventional mechanical face seal with rectangular sealing surfaces.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.197-202
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• 1999

A mechanical face seal is a tribe-element intended to control the leakage of working fluid at the interface of a rotating shaft and its housing. The leakage of working fluid decreases as the seal surfaces get closer each other. But a very small seal clearance results in a drastic reduction of seal life because of high wear and heat generation. Therefore, in the design of mechanical face seals the compromise between low leakage and acceptable life is important and presents a difficult design problem. And the gap geometry of seal clearance affects seal performance very much and becomes an important design variable. In this study the Reynolds equation for the sealing dam of mechanical face seals is numerically analyzed using the Galerkin Finite Element Method, which can be readily applied to various seal geometries. The film pressures of the sealing dam are analyzed, including the effects of the seal face coning and tilt. Then, opening forces, restoring moments, leakages, and dynamic coefficients are calculated.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.916-922
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• 2001

A mechanical face seal is a tribo-element intended to control leakage of working fluid at the interface between a rotating shaft and its housing. Leakage of working fluid decreases drastically as the clearance of the mating seal faces gets smaller. But the very small seal clearance results in an increased reduction of seal life because of high wear and heat generation. Therefore, in the design of mechanical face seals a compromise between low leakage and acceptable seal life is important, and it presents a difficult and practical design problem. A fluid film or sealing dam geometry of the seal clearance affects seal lubrication performance very much, and thereby it is one of the main design considerations. In this study the Reynolds equation for the sealing dam of mechanical face seals is numerically analyzed, using the Galerkin finite element method, which is readily applied to various seal geometries. Film pressures of the sealing dam are analyzed, including the effects of the seal face coning and tilt. Then, lubrication performances of the seals, such as opening forces, restoring moments, leakage, and dynamic coefficients, are calculated, and they are compared to the results obtained by the narrow seal approximation.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.10 no.1 s.40
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• pp.20-25
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• 2007

A mechanical face seal has been tested in Korea Aerospace Research Institute for turbopump applications. In this paper the acceptance test results of the mechanical face seal are described. By means of simulating a practical operating environment, the performance against leakage of mechanical face seal is monitored. In addition the carbon wear is measured to estimate the life of a mechanical face seal. The test results show the acceptable leakage performance and resonable wear tendency as well. Lastly the repeated test had been carried out to guarantee the endurance performance of mechanical face seal based on the turbopump life.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.154-159
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• 2016

This paper presents an experimental study of the leakage performance and endurance performance of a mechanical face seal in the 7-ton-class turbopump of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle 2 third-stage engine. We install a mechanical face seal between the fuel pump and turbine to prevent the mixing of the fuel and turbine gas. We design and manufacture a prototype mechanical face seal, which has two parts, namely, a bellows seal assembly and mating ring. We set up a test facility to measure the leakage and endurance of the mechanical face seal. For the similarity tests, we use water under real operating conditions such as high rotational speed, high temperature, and high pressure. Through investigation of the leakage and carbon wear rate, it is possible to evaluate the performance of the mechanical face seal. The results of the leakage and endurance performance test demonstrate the absence of any leakage from the prototype mechanical face seal after a trial run and clarify that the acceptable wear rate fully satisfies the turbopump requirements. Finally, we install a qualified mechanical face seal in a 7-ton-class turbopump and perform a validation test in the turbopump real-propellant test facility in the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The test results confirm that the mechanical face seal works well under real operating conditions.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.240-248
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• 2011

Mechanical face seal installed in primary heat transport pump used for heavy water reactor prevents leakage of working fluid using thin working fluid film between primary seal ring and mating ring. If the leakage of working fluid exceeds the allowable volume, serious accident can be happened by the trouble of primary heat transport pump. The thinner fluid film exists between primary seal ring and mating ring, the less working fluid leaks out. On the other hand, if the thickness of fluid film is not enough, the life of mechanical face seal will be reduced by friction and wear. Therefore appropriate design is necessary to maximize the performance and life of mechanical face seal. In this study, numerical analysis using finite volume method was conducted to investigate the performance of mechanical face seals which have same deep straight groove and 11 different net coning values. As results, equilibrium clearance between primary seal ring and mating ring, leakage volume of working fluid, friction torque on sealing surface and stiffness of working fluid film were obtained. With increasing net coning value, equilibrium clearance and leakage volume increase, and friction torque and stiffness of fluid film decrease.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.341-349
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• 2001

Heat distortion of the non-contacting mechanical face seal is affected by friction heat between primary seal and seal sheet. The fluid or gas in mechanical face seal maintains operating gap, cooling friction heat and lubricates at the face of seal. So we designed face of seal for inclined face. inclined face of seal improves fluid or gas flow at the face of seal and it increases circumferential velocity at outer radius of the seal so temperature of the seal is decreased by low heat transfer coefficient at there. In this paper, inclined face seal are analysed numerically using finite element method for proof improve inclined face seal performance. Angle of the incline face used for FEA is from 50$^{\circ}$to 90$^{\circ}$and for explaining the effects of inclined face in seal, we get temperature, face distortion, and stress in the seal with variable operating gap and rotating speeds. Result of analysis shows that angle of the incline face is 60$^{\circ}$come to good thermal distortion characteristics.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.2989-2994
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• 2000

A mechanical face seal is a tribo-element intended to control leakage of working fluid at the interface of a rotating shaft and its housing. Leakage of working fluid decreases drastically as the clearance between mating seal faces gets smaller. But the very small clearance may result in an increased reduction of seal life because of high wear and heat generation. Therefore, in the design of mechanical face seals a compromise between low leakage and acceptable seal life is important, ant it present a difficult and practical design problem. A fluid film or sealing dam geometry of the seal clearance affects seal lubrication performance very much, and thereby is optimization is one of the main design consideration. in this study the Reynolds equation for the sealing dam of mechanical face seals is numerically analyzed, using the Galerkin finite element method, which is readily applied to various seal geometries, to give lubrication performances, such as opening force, restoring moment, leakage, and axial and angular stiffness coefficients. Then, to improve the seal performance an optimization is performed, considering various design variables simultaneously. For the tested case the optimization ha successfully resulted in the optimal design values of outer and inner seal radii, coning, seal clearance, and balance radius while satisfying all the operation subjected constraints and design variable side-constraints, and improvements of axial and angular stiffness coefficients by 16.8% and 2.4% respectively and reduction of leakage by 38.4% have been achieved.