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The experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of shaft rotation on leakage rate of non-contacting seals found in turbine applications

Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2018.

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Other Authors: Craig, K.J. (Kenneth)
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2018
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Craig, K.J. (Kenneth)
author_browse Craig, K.J. (Kenneth)
author_facet Craig, K.J. (Kenneth)
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2018.
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/66258
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:37:26.754Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2018
publishDateRange 2018
publishDateSort 2018
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
record_format dspace
source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/66258 The experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of shaft rotation on leakage rate of non-contacting seals found in turbine applications Craig, K.J. (Kenneth) u11196964@tuks.co.za Thiart, Coenie Wiid, Jacobus Johannes Fourie UCTD Labyrinth seal Brush seal Leakage rate Shaft rotation Leakage flow fields Economic and management sciences theses SDG-07 SDG-07: Affordable and clean energy Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09 SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-12 SDG-12: Responsible consumption and production Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2018. This project was initiated by ESKOM power generation. ESKOM loses up to 22% of their steam energy in the HP turbines due to leakage at the turbine labyrinth seals. Therefore the need was expressed their need to implement improved sealing configurations. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect that shaft rotation has on the leakage rate of labyrinth and brush seals. This is done by means of experimental and numerical methods. For many decades it was assumed that the shaft rotation has no or little effect on seal performance and therefore it was neglected in seal design. It was decided to investigate this subject, in order to assist and improve in future seal design and operation. Both labyrinth and brush seals were investigated experimentally on a test rig. A real life application of the labyrinth or brush seals can be found in the power generation industry where a turbine shaft has a diameter of 300 mm and rotates at 3 000 rpm. The test rig was designed to assist in this application. Therefor the test rig had a shaft diameter of 150 mm with shaft speeds ranging between 0-10 000 rpm and with five different upstream pressures ranging from 1-5 bar. The same seals were then simulated using the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) package STAR-CCM+ with the bristle pack of the brush seal modelled as a porous medium. The coefficients of resistance for the porous medium were experimentally obtained. The two investigation methods are compared for the labyrinth and brush seals. The labyrinth and brush seals are also compared against each other. The results show that the experimental leakage rates have a good correlation with those predicted by CFD. The CFD simulation provided detailed leakage flow fields and pressure distributions of both seals. It was found that shaft rotation has an influence on the leakage rate of both seals. The leakage rate increased at higher shaft speeds, with the brush seal performing better than the labyrinth seal. An increase of up to 1.7% was found at 10 000 rpm for the labyrinth seal and 1.45% for the brush seal at 10 000 rpm. Guidelines were created based on these results to assist with advanced seal design. It is recommended that these guidelines are used in future seal design and other research aspects of non-contacting seals in turbo machinery. mi2025 Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering MEng Unrestricted SDG-07: Affordable and clean energy SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure SDG-12: Responsible consumption and production 2018-08-17T09:42:51Z 2018-08-17T09:42:51Z 2005/03/18 2018 Dissertation Wiid, JJF 2018, The experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of shaft rotation on leakage rate of non-contacting seals found in turbine applications, MEng Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/66258> A2018 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/66258 en © 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Labyrinth seal
Brush seal
Leakage rate
Shaft rotation
Leakage flow fields
Economic and management sciences theses SDG-07
SDG-07: Affordable and clean energy
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09
SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-12
SDG-12: Responsible consumption and production
The experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of shaft rotation on leakage rate of non-contacting seals found in turbine applications
title The experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of shaft rotation on leakage rate of non-contacting seals found in turbine applications
title_full The experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of shaft rotation on leakage rate of non-contacting seals found in turbine applications
title_fullStr The experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of shaft rotation on leakage rate of non-contacting seals found in turbine applications
title_full_unstemmed The experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of shaft rotation on leakage rate of non-contacting seals found in turbine applications
title_short The experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of shaft rotation on leakage rate of non-contacting seals found in turbine applications
title_sort experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of shaft rotation on leakage rate of non contacting seals found in turbine applications
topic UCTD
Labyrinth seal
Brush seal
Leakage rate
Shaft rotation
Leakage flow fields
Economic and management sciences theses SDG-07
SDG-07: Affordable and clean energy
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09
SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-12
SDG-12: Responsible consumption and production
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/66258