Numerical Modeling of Static and Rotordynamic Characteristics for Three Types of Helically Grooved Liquid Annular Seals

This paper deals with numerical predictions of the leakage flowrates, drag power, and rotordynamic force coefficients for three types of helically grooved liquid annular seals, which include a liquid annular seal with helically grooved stator (GS/SR seal), one with helically grooved rotor (SS/GR seal), and one with helical grooves on stator and rotor (GS/GR seal). A novel transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based perturbation method was proposed for the predictions of the leakage flowrates, drag power, and rotordynamic force coefficients of helically grooved liquid annular seals. This method is based on the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solution with the mesh-deformation technique and the multiple reference frame theory. The time-varying fluid-induced forces acting on the rotor/stator surface were obtained as a response to the time-dependent perturbation of the seal stator surface with the periodic motion, based on the multiple-frequency elliptical-orbit stator whirling model. The frequency-independent rotordynamic force coefficients were determined using curve fit and fast Fourier transform (FFT) in the frequency domain. The CFD-based method was adequately validated by comparisons with the published experiment data of leakage flowrates and fluid response forces for three types of helically grooved liquid annular seals. Based on the transient CFD-based perturbation method, numerical results of the leakage flowrates, drag powers, and rotordynamic force coefficients were presented and compared for three types of helically grooved liquid annular seals at five rotational speeds (n = 0.5 krpm, 1.0 krpm, 2.0 krpm, 3.0 krpm, and 4.0 krpm), paying special attention to the effective stiffness coefficient and effective damping coefficient.