Thermoelastohydrodynamic Behavior of Gas Spiral Groove Face Seals Operating at High Pressure and Speed

A numerical modeling of thermoelastohydrodynamic gas spiral groove face seal behavior is presented. Temperature fields of the fluid film and the seal rings are computed, as they are the elastic and thermal distortions of the rings. Numerical analysis is carried out on a gas spiral groove face seal taking into account of choked flow effect. Analysis results show that both elastic and thermal distortions induce strong influence on the geometry of the fluid film, forming obvious divergent clearance which leads to significant decrease of minimum equilibrium clearance, exceeding 50% in degree. Thermal distortion may induce the same influence degree as elastic distortion on the minimum equilibrium clearance in high pressure cases, but the rotation speed has no obvious influence on the minimum clearance when both elastic and thermal distortions are considered. The thermal distortion as well as elastic distortion should be concerned in high pressure analysis.