Research
Leakage and Thermal Characterisation of Canted Labyrinth Seals
Labyrinth seals are the simple and most commonly used rotating seal in cold (compressor) and hot (turbine) regions of gas turbine engines. In order to achieve successful engine design estimating accurate leakage flow rates, windage heating and heat transfer coefficients are critical for rotor dynamic stability. The windage effect inside the flow creates direct loss of power also increase fluid temperature. In this paper numerical simulation of a canted stepped labyrinth seal is performed using commercial Fluent CFD code with 2D axisymmetric is used to study leakage flow and windage heating for various seal clearances for solid (smooth) stator land geometry. The 2D model is subsequently used to determine average heat transfer coefficients on the rotor and stator for heating and cooling situations.
Leakage and Cavity Shape Studies of Labyrinth Seals
Labyrinth seals are a non-contacting sealing device consists of a series of cavities connected by small clearances. They are used in many places in gas turbine engine to optimize and improve their design using CFD, is of interest to this study with newer designs of labyrinth seal. Preliminary investigations were carried out to establish the baseline capability for CFD analysis of labyrinth seals using Fluent and also to finalize the turbulence model with mesh type, thereafter detailed 2-D axi-symmetric analyses with different geometries and configurations. The applications of the new labyrinth seal designs are important to meet future performance of gas turbine goals. This paper presents improved design of canted seal design using RANS equations, with Turbulence two equations k-w turbulence model using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
