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ABSTRACT
The behavior of a face seal is determined by the complex interaction of a
number of factors. Advantages are usually attained at the price of disadvantages in
the other directions. For example if the roughness is constant, an increase of the
contact pressure reduce leakage, but the wear and frictional heat increase. As
against this, increasing leakage losses can reduce the friction and the heat
production, but the effectiveness of the unit as a seal is reduced. Again, a high
friction may not only lead to increased wear but also, due a thermal distortion, to
considerable leakage losses, or it may cause the seal to break down because of a
thermal stress cracks.
By appropriate seal design, choice of materials and type of seal arrangement,
individual requirements such as minimum leakage, maximum life or minimum
friction can be met.
The paper presents the FEM (finite element method) analyze of the leakage
and friction rates of a mechanical face seal for the automotive industry.
Maintenance: periodic inspection and However there are various causes for face seal
replacement are admissible. leakage, that normally takes place through the radial
Applications: seal gap formed by the two sliding surfaces. Leakage
automobile and excavator units, appears in most cases due to the distortions caused by
dynamic contact seals such as face (axial) seals stresses. So it is of great importance to know the
operate with external continuous friction. stress distribution along the interface
End face type seals have been used as sealing
2. FRICTION AND WEAR IN THE devices of water pumps in cooling systems of
DYNAMIC CONTACT SEALS automotive engines. From the beginning, various
kinds of troublesome problems have occurred in the
A great diversity of contact-seals designs, practical market, i.e. excessive wear of carbon
materials, operating conditions, and factor that affect surface, cracks on ceramic surface, spring breakage,
their performance have not yet allowed the general bellows breakage, excessive friction, separation at
conclusions on friction and wear of these seals to be bounding parts, squeaking phenomena and etc.
drawn. At the same time, the results of studies of Through the investigations on causes and counter
particular cases may often lead the design engineer to measures of the problems, face seals of this type have
an erroneous decision if the seal he develops is been greatly improved in the sealing performance.
different in some way from that he has taken as a The excessive abrasion of mechanical seals is
prototype. caused by foreign particles in liquid to be sealed. As
For the face seals design calculation methods to the ringing phenomena, two types were already
have been devised for the assessment of fluid reported. One was caused by the boiling of liquid to
pressure (with regard to out-of-squareness of the be sealed near rubbing portion and another was due to
faces and to pressure in the clearance), behavior of the stick-slip between the sliding surfaces.
the fluid sealed in face clearances, hydrodynamic Foreign particles collected from the cooling
effect for the sealing rings, deformations of the rings system of automotive engines are composed of
due to pressure and temperature, and also temperature cutting chip of cast metal, aluminum and molding
fields in the rings of the rubbing pair. sand including several kinds of crystalline materials,
Depending on application, sealing rubbers i.e. SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, Cu2O and etc. As the best
should be strong, heat resistant, cold resistant, or countermeasures is to reduce the amount of particles
resistant to chemical attack. These characteristics damaging the rubbing surface. One can advice pump
must often be combined; some of them are mutually makers to flush engine blocks completely, improve
incompatible. Anyhow, all sealing rubber applications filters and change liquid periodically. On the other
require good friction properties: high wear resistance hand, the countermeasures of mechanical seals are
and low coefficient of friction. considered to establish uniform thin hydrodynamic
In a face seal (Fig. 1), an axial force presses a films by decreasing the thermal distortion of sliding
rotating floating ring 5 against a fixed counterface 6. materials.
The axial leakage path between the floating ring and In particular, carbon materials had been
the shaft is closed by a static seal such as an O-ring 7. improved positively to have the characteristics of
The static and sliding surface of the traditional higher thermal conductivity and lower coefficient of
stuffing box are effectively interchanged, with the thermal expansion.
advantage that the geometry if the sliding sealing Only the primary leakage through the seal gap
surface can now be produced more accurately and between the faces of the seals will be considered on
less expansively and there is no longer any wear on the assumption that a hydrodynamic film exist in face
the shaft or shaft sleeve. To compensate for any lack seals and that the leakage can be calculated in
of alignment of the seal faces and for longitudinal accordance with the known equation for laminar flow
thermal expansion of machine and seal, as well as through a radial annular gap.
wear of the seal faces, the face seal must contain at πd h ( p − p 2 )
Q= m 0 1 (2)
least one flexible member such as a diaphragm, 12ηb
bellows, elastomeric seal, or spring 1, 3 (Fig. 1). Since in practice the liquid film thickness h0 is
seldom constant and the actual gap form can deviate
considerably from the assumed parallel gap because
of temperature differences in the ring.
At present manufacturing specifications
prescribe polished surface of Ra = 0.015-0.5µm and a
flatness of 2-3 light bands. An optical interference
testing instruments with a monochromatic helium
light source (1 helium light band = 0.3µm) is used for
measuring the flatness.
When a face seal with lapped surface is brought
Fig. 1 into operation, the face profile alters suddenly,
THE ANNALS OF UNIVERSITY “DUNĂREA DE JOS“ OF GALAŢI 15
FASCICLE VIII, TRIBOLOGY
2003 ISSN 1221-4590
depending upon the torque applied and the axial and Apart from the geometry of the seal surface also
radial forces and temperature gradient set up. The has a considerable influence on the behavior of a face
rings distort (Fig. 2) and the gap can become convex, seal. As the roughness increases so does the leakage
concave or inclined with contact on either the internal and in the case of balanced seals (A < 1) there is a
or external periphery. If now the operating condition, danger of the seal faces parting.
wear will cause the faces to return gradually to the In normal seals, which do not have radial
parallel if sufficient time and contact pressure are grooves in the sliding faces as do hydrodynamic
available. The necessary running-in period above all mechanical seals, no hydrodynamic pressure is
depends on the magnitude of the distortion, the net generated in the seal interface. However, mechanical
contact pressure and the wear resistance of the and thermal distortion can result in a hydrostatic
material combination. In face seals this time can be pressure increase in the gap. With mechanical seals of
from a few minutes to several months. If, however, A ≤≥ 1 and a parallel gap, solid contact normally
during the starting process the surface are already exists, hence permeability of the interface to leakage
damaged, e.g. by thermal stress cracks, seizure or by is determined by the magnitude of the surface
exceeding the thermal limits of the materials (melting roughness.
of the metal impregnated carbons) of if the sealing The geometry of the seal gap and roughness of
surface are stripped, then the seals cease to function. the mating surface can change under operating
The distortion occurring in face seals, especially conditions. This in turn influences the closing force
under intermittent operating conditions, make it P, the gap pressure p, the leakage losses Q and even
particularly difficult to calculate the leakage the friction condition. The leakage can thus alter
accurately. In all, three main factors influence the under nominally constant operating conditions. In
distortion of the sealing gap, the axial forces, the face seals, the condition of the non-pressurised
radial forces and the temperature gradients. lubricant in the seal gap (see X zone in figure 4) is of
Mechanical forces which tend to alter the shape importance because of the stability of this condition
of the seal gap are mainly controlled by the area ratio, and the low leakage loss.
A, and by the sealed pressure and its direction of There are a number of factors that can lead to
application. Due to distortion, face seals tend to make failure of the sliding faces of a seal, such as corrosion,
contact on either the outside periphery D or the inside overstressing, thermal overload and wear. Wear, in
periphery d (Fig. 3a and b) which, of necessary, particular, can reach disastrous proportions if
considerably alters the load. By suitable dimensioning unsuitable combinations of face materials are used. In
and selection of materials it is possible, in theory, to practice, a badly designed seal that has a good
calculate the distortions and keep them within combination of face materials is often preferable to a
acceptable limits. In practice, however, these better design with unsuitable face materials.
calculations are rather complex. It is exceptional to use purely metallic material
in couples for face seals, since there is not always a
hydrodynamic film of lubricant separating the faces
and solid contact must be catered for. All-metal
couples are impracticable because of their poor
emergency dry running characteristics.
In selecting sliding materials, consideration
should be given to operating conditions, ease of
manufacture and material costs. The chemical activity
as well as the physical and mechanical properties
Fig. 3 Extremes of seal face deformation. have to be considered.
(a) contact at outside diameter D;
(b) contact at inside diameter d.
Fig. 2 Some typical light-band patterns with monochromatic light. (1) optical flat; (2)seal ring; (3) contact
point. (a) measuring datum; (b) parallel light bands indicate flatness within the optical flat tolerance; (c) the seal
ring is concave to the extent of one light band over the measured length ML; (d) the seal ring is convex to two
light band over the measured length ML.
16 THE ANNALS OF UNIVERSITY “DUNĂREA DE JOS“ OF GALAŢI
FASCICLE VIII, TRIBOLOGY
2003 ISSN 1221-4590
SOLIDS
cylindrical
coordinates
u = u (r, θ, y)
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
3D, 2D, 1D models in cylindrical coordinates. The tension/specific deformation relation is:
The axi-symmetric problem is not alike the 1− v v v 0 εr
σr
plane deformation situation because the normal σ 0 ε y
specific deformation on the working plane of the y E v 1− v v
= v 0 ⋅ ε
σ0 (1+ v) ⋅ (1− 2 ⋅ v)
section ε0 is not zero and it must be explicitated in the v 1− v
specification vector {ε}. 1− 2 ⋅ v 0
τry 0 0 0 γ
Its value is: 2 ry
u (7)
ε0 = (5) If [J] is the Jacobian transformation matrix and
v
The relation between the specific deformation │J│ its reverse, then the displacement derivatives u,
and displacements is: v reported to the global system r, y are like in relation
(8) where derivates vector related to the natural
∂u system s, t are calculated with relation (4).
∂r
Relation (9) has a general form and it is
ε r 1 0 0 0 0 ∂u available for linear finite elements and for superior
ε 0 0 0 1 0 ∂y degree ones too.
y
= 1 ⋅ ∂v (6) Particularly for face seals n = 4, the element has
ε
0 0 0 0 0
r ∂r four nodes in r, y plane.
γ ry 0 1 1 0 0 ∂v Relations (6), (8) and (9) allow the matrix
∂y [B(s,t)] computation from the relation {ε}= [B] {δ}
u
THE ANNALS OF UNIVERSITY “DUNĂREA DE JOS“ OF GALAŢI 19
FASCICLE VIII, TRIBOLOGY
2003 ISSN 1221-4590
∂u ∂u
∂r
∂u J 11 J 12 0 0 0 ∂s
∂u
∂y J 21 J 22 0 0 0 ∂t
∂v = 0 0 J 11 J 22 0 ⋅ ∂v (8)
∂r 0 0 J 21 J 22
0 ∂s
∂v ∂v
0 0 0 0 1
∂y ∂t
u u
FEM programe
Disc stockage
NASTRAN 4. MODELLING, AND ANALYSING BY
FEM OF A „EFS 103-S” MECHANICAL
Rubbing contact SEAL
input
Displacement
tension The face seal has a geometrical axis of
Fig. 8 symmetry so it was modeled as a structure with
20 THE ANNALS OF UNIVERSITY “DUNĂREA DE JOS“ OF GALAŢI
FASCICLE VIII, TRIBOLOGY
2003 ISSN 1221-4590
Fig. 10