• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.857-862
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• 2009

In this study, the numerical study has carried out to analyze the leakage in a steam turbine labyrinth seal. We modified tooth shape of the labyrinth seal and finds out difference of leakage in this study. Original model is straight labyrinth seal and its modified model is slant labyrinth seal. The numerical analyses are implemented on two models. The numerical results show that each leakage of tooth shape are found 0.4781 kg/s and 0.4485 kg/s, respectively. Slant labyrinth seal seals in a steam better than straight labyrinth seal. Since, actual clearance of the stream function in the slant model is smaller than the straight model.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.141-146
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• 1999

An experimental investigation on the leakage characteristics of a labyrinth seal, high-low seal, is studied. Pressure distribution and leakage flow rate are measured along with the shaft speed and the pressure difference between the entrance and the exit. Pressure distribution vanes almost linearly along the seal and the leakage flow rate increases as the increase of the pressure difference. Furthermore, it is found that both the shaft speed and the shaft vibration have no influence on the leakage of the labyrinth seal.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.37-41
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• 2007

Labyrinth seal is most common way to protect the bearings installed in Reaction wheel. In spite of wide applications, no such research was found about the sealing utility of the Labyrinth seal in the condition of vacuum and high temperature. In this research, we tried to verify the utility of Labyrinth seal. Numerical analysis had been executed to predict the benefit of the Labyrinth seal and also experiments were performed to verify the utilization. Two Bearings were installed at the vacuum chamber, one was assembled with Labyrinth seal and the other was stand alone. After executing the vacuum test, it was found to be the stand alone bearing had lost more weight than the one that was assembled with the labyrinth seal. In this result, it is verified that the Labyrinth seal has useful function to preserve the lubricant that affects to the life-cycle of the Bearing.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.24-33
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• 2002

The basic equations are derived for the analysis of a staggered labyrinth gas seal which are generally used in high performance compressors and steam turbines. The Bulk-flow is assumed for a single cavity control volume and the flow is assumed to be completely turbulent in circumferential direction. Moody's wall-friction-factor formula is used for the calculation of wall shear stresses in the single cavity control volume. For the reaction force developed by the seal, linearized zeroth-order and first-order perturbation equations are developed for small motion about a centered position. Integration of the resultant first-order pressure distribution along and around the seal defines the rotordynamic coefficients of the staggered labyrinth gas seal. Theoretical results of leakage and rotordynamic characteristics for the staggered labyrinth gas seal are compared with those of the plain seal and see-through labyrinth seal.

• Plant Journal
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.56-61
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• 2009

In this study, the numerical study has been carried out to analyze the leakage in a steam turbine labyrinth seal. We modified tooth shape of the labyrinth seal and find out the difference of leakage in this study. Original model is straight labyrinth seal and its modified model is slanted labyrinth seal. The numerical analyses are implemented on two models. The numerical results show that each leakage of tooth shape are found to be 0.4781 kg/s and 0.4485 kg/s, respectively. The slanted labyrinth seal confines in a steam better than straight labyrinth seal. Since actual clearance of the stream function in the slant model is smaller than that of the straight model.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.1217-1225
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• 2001

The governing equations are derived for the analysis of a stepped labyrinth gas seal generally used in high performance compressors, gas turbines, and steam turbines. The bulk-flow is assumed for a single cavity control volume set up in a stepped labyrinth cavity and the flow is assumed to be completely turbulent in the circumferential direction. The Moodys wall-friction-factor model is used for the calculation of wall shear stresses in the single cavity control volume. For the reaction force developed by the stepped labyrinth gas seal, linearized zeroth-order and first-order perturbation equations are developed for small motion about a centered position. Integration of the resultant first-order pressure distribution along and around the seal defines the rotordynamic coefficients of the stepped labyrinth gas seal. The resulting leakage and rotordynamic characteristics of the stepped labyrinth gas seal are presented and compared with Scharrers theoretical analysis using Blasius wall-friction-factor model. The present analysis shows a good qualitative agreement of leakage characteristics with Scharrers analysis, but underpredicts by about 20%. For the rotordynamic coefficients, the present analysis generally yields smaller predictied values compared with Scharrers analysis.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.7 no.6 s.27
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• pp.45-54
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• 2004

Governing equations and numerical solution methods are derived for the analysis of a combination-type-staggered-labyrinth seal used in high performance steam turbines. A bulk flow is assumed for each combination-type-staggered-labyrinth cavity. Axial flow through a throttling labyrinth strip is determined by Neumann's leakage equation and circumferential flow is assumed to be completely turbulent in the labyrinth cavity. Moody's wall-friction-factor formula is used for the calculation of wall shear stresses. For the reaction force developed by the seal, linearized zeroth-order and first-order perturbation equations are developed for small motion near the centered position. Integration of the resultant first-order pressure distribution along and around the seal defines the rotordynamic coefficients of the combination-type-staggered-labyrinth seal. Theoretical results of leakage and rotordynamic characteristics for the IP4-stage seal of USC (ultra super critical) steam turbine are shown with the effect of sump pressure, the number of throttling labyrinth strip, and rotor speed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.1149-1149
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• 2006

The leakage characteristic is an important factor in power plant. However, most of power plant have efficiency problem which is occurred leaking between high pressure steam turbine axle and stator. The labyrinth seal which is used between the main turbine axle and stator in the power plant. Because it is able to be non-contact seal and it is minimize clearance to decrease the leakage. But its actual system is too huge to experiment. Therefore, most steam turbine seal performance tests were conducted by air similarity test. This paper described a test facility and program for air similarity test of high pressure steam turbine seal. A test facility has been designed and built to evaluate leakage verification of labyrinth seal. The test facility consist of air compressor, anti-swirl labyrinth seal for 1/3 air similarity model, pressure transducer, air flow measure system, instrumentation and auxiliary system. For evaluation of steam turbine seal performance, the air similarity test of labyrinth seal leakage verification was conducted and we compared experiment data and analysis result.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.63-69
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• 2022

In this research, the rotordynamic characteristics of the labyrinth seal with and without swirl brake were predicted using the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model. Based on previous studies, a simple swirl brake consisting of square vanes without stagger angle is designed and placed in front of the seal inlet. The rotating frame of reference is utilized to consider the whirling motion of the rotor in the steady-state analysis since the whirling motion is transient behavior in nature. CFD analysis was performed in the range of -1 to 1 pre-swirl ratio for a given seal and swirl brake design and operating conditions. The CFD analysis result shows that the swirl brake effectively reduces the pre-swirl since the circumferential fluid velocity of labyrinth seal with swirl brake was lower than that without swirl brake. The cross-coupled stiffness coefficient, which is greatly affected by the circumferential fluid velocity, increased with an increasing pre-swirl ratio in a seal without a swirl brake but showed a low value in a seal with a swirl brake. The change in the damping coefficient was relatively small. The effective damping coefficient of the labyrinth seal with swirl brake was generally constant and showed a higher value than the labyrinth seal without swirl brake.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2021

This study describes the effects of a thrust labyrinth seal applied to the backside of a centrifugal impeller on the axial thrust force for high speed turbomachinery. The bulk flow model using Neumann's equation calculates the seal cavity pressures and leakage flow rate of the thrust labyrinth seal based on three configurations: teeth-on-rotor (TOR), teeth-on-stator (TOS), and interlocking labyrinth seal (ILS). Prediction results show that the ILS is superior to the TOR and TOS in terms of leakage flow rate. A mathematical model of a centrifugal impeller with a thrust labyrinth seal on its backside calculates the force components corresponding to the impeller inlet, shroud, impeller backside outer, backside seal, and backside inner pressures. A summation of the force components renders the total axial thrust force acting on the centrifugal impeller. The Newton-Raphson numerical scheme iteratively calculates the pressures and leakage flow rate through the impeller wall gap. The prediction results reveal that the leakage flow rate and total axial thrust force increase with rotor speed, and the ILS significantly decreases the leakage flow rate, whereas it slightly increases the axial thrust force when compared to TOR and TOS. Increasing the seal clearance causes an increase in the leakage flow rate and a slight decrease in the axial thrust force with the ILS.