Experimental study on the water lubrication

of non-contacting face seals for turbopumps

Zhang Guo-yuan
School of Electromechanical Engineering, Xidian University, Xian, China

Wei-gang Zhao
Xian Aerospace Propulsion Institute, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Xian, China, and

Yan Xiu Tian

Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management, The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Abstract
Purpose A new type of hydrostatic and hydrodynamic non-contacting face seals has been designed to meet the requirements of lower leakage,
longer life and more repeatedly start and stop on shaft seals raised by liquid rocket engine turbopumps. And an experimental study on the performance
of the face seal in the actual liquid oxygen turbopump was completed where low-viscosity water was selected as the seal fluid for the sake of safety.
The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach Different performances of face seals under preset conditions were obtained by repeatedly running tests, and the
main performance parameters encompass leakage, fluid film pressure between the faces, operating power, face temperature, and so on.
Findings The results indicate that the designed face seal has a smaller amount of leakage, with a minimum value of 3 ml/s. Furthermore, the
designed face seal has been proved to demand lower operating power. Since its operating power changes slightly with different sealed fluid pressures,
the new seal can be deployed in the harsh working condition with high pressure or with high speed (greater than 20,000 rpm). However, one proviso is
that when liquid is employed as the seal fluid, the groove depth should be relatively deeper (greater than 10 mm).
Research limitations/implications In response to future engineering requirements, study on the controllable spiral-groove face seals to improve
the current design is being conducted.
Originality/value The advancement of such non-contacting face seals proffers important insights to the design of turbo-pump shaft seal in a new
generation of liquid rocket engine with regard to the requirement of frequent start and stop as well as long life on it.
Keywords Water, Wear, Sealing materials, Lubricants
Paper type Research paper

contacting seal can substantially weaken pump efficiency once its

large leakage of liquid oxygen enters the turbine chamber.
In response to the requirements of low leakage and long life on
face seals, posed by many applications, a new type of hydrostatic
and hydrodynamic non-contacting face seals has been proposed
and designed. Additionally, the advancement of such noncontacting face seals (the internal herringbone groove and
external spiral groove rotor face) proffers important insights to
the design of turbo-pump shaft seal in a new generation of liquid
(liquid oxygen/kerosene) rocket engine with regard to the
requirement of frequent start and stop as well as long life on it
(Zhang et al., 2011a; Li et al., 2006). Nevertheless, for the sake of
safety, the present study substituted low-viscosity water for lowviscosity liquid oxygen, the real fluid in turbopump, to conduct a
simulation investigation under various operating conditions,
aiming at obtaining the face seal leakages, face liquid pressures,
powers and face temperatures.

1. Introduction
Regarding the high-class turbopump in high-pressure, stagedcombustion engines with liquid oxygen/kerosene lubrication, the
conventional solution to the problem of high temperature gas
reflux to the house of low temperature liquid oxygen is the
adoption of contacting face seals with liquid oxygen introduced
from behind the turbopump. In a liquid contacting seal there is
always a degree of mechanical contact either at stop/starts and
during general operation due to the close dimensional tolerances
associated with thin liquid films (Jones, 2004). Therefore, the
wear rate is high in the contacting seal, Beyond this, contacting
seals performance gets closer to that of non-contacting seals
under certain conditions, namely, when the rotation speed
reaches the critical separation speed or when the pressure
difference between the inlet and outlet pressure of face seals
exceeds the design value (Zhang et al., 2008). Notwithstanding
its advantage of low wear and long life, the traditional non-

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation
of China with No. 51205314, the Fundamental Research Funds for the
Central Universities with No. K5051304036 and Aerospace Science and
Technology Innovation Foundation of CASC (China Aerospace Science
and Technology Corporation) with No. CASC201103 for their financial
support. The authors would also like to thank Prof. Yuan in Xian Jiaotong
University and Mr Yang, Dr Li and the other experiment assistants in
Xian Aerospace Propulsion Institute of CASC, who have given the
authors great help in the experiment process.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0036-8792.htm

Industrial Lubrication and Tribology

66/2 (2014) 314 321
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0036-8792]
[DOI 10.1108/ILT-01-2012-0003]

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Zhang Guo-yuan, Wei-gang Zhao and Yan Xiu Tian

Volume 66 Number 2 2014 314 321

2. The design and analysis of the tested face seal

possibility of separation between faces when face seals are in

operation (Zhang et al., 2008), improves the lubrication
performance between faces and extends seal life considerably,
and is conducive to the realization of micro-or even zero seal
leakage by the pumping effect of the dynamic pressure groove,
which transfers the fluid either in the main or supplementary
seals to the between-face gap (Liu et al., 2007; Wang et al.,
2004). Therefore, the surface modification parameter (groove
parameter) of the rotor should be considered as the core
parameter in the design of hydrodynamic non-contacting
face seal.

2.1 The design of seal for the turbopump system

The non-contacting seal, as shown in Figure 1, was designed
based on the working environment, seal space size, and seal
features such as being compact and reasonable of a certain
liquid oxygen turbine.
As shown in Figure 1, the liquid oxygen turbine shaft seal
adopts a three-stage seal system. Specifically, the new
hydrostatic and hydrodynamic non-contacting face seal
(consists of the rotor (3) and the stator (4)), constitutes the
main seal, and a labyrinth seal (7) and an O-ring seal (8) form
two supplementary seals, added behind the non-contacting face
seal. Within this multiple stage seal system, the performance of
the whole system pivots on that of the non-contacting face seal.
Although non-contacting face seal has had wide applications in
other industries, further experiments are demanded for
verification in view of the actual environmental requirements
of the turbopump. However, due to the maturity of the labyrinth
seal and O-seal technologies, manifested both in theory and
industrial applications, concrete technological investigations on
them are skipped in the present study.

2.3 Groove determination in the rotor

The seal is located in the oxygen chamber of gas turbine end in
certain liquid rocket turbopump, where low-temperature liquid
oxygen serves as the sealed fluid, which is put in the high-pressure
side with the maximum pressure of 29 MPa (also known as the
upstream side or external side) of the seal face. Meanwhile, the
gas is put in the low-pressure side with relatively low pressure yet
at least 10 MPa (also known as the downstream side or internal
side) of the seal face. Besides, the turbopump rotor system runs at
the speed as high as 20,000 r/min.
Through comparative analysis, the internal herringbone
groove and external spiral groove rotor face structure has been
adopted in the present investigation. The structure of the seal
rotor face used in the experiment is shown in Figure 2, it is
made of stainless steel 9Cr18. As shown in Figure 2, the
ordinary spiral groove is made in the place close to the outer
diameter of the rotor while the herringbone spiral groove is
manufactured in the place close to the inter diameter of the
rotor. The employment of this double-groove structure
contributes to force balance in the outer and inter diameters
of the seal faces, avoids contacting faces radial deviation, and
maintains axial symmetry and a parallel interface when seal is
in operation. The pump-priming effect generated by the
single row spiral groove in operation at the outer diameter can
enhance the load bearing capacity and stiffness of the film.
The herringbone spiral groove at the inter diameter, targeted
at the gas at the inter diameter in particular due to its low
viscosity and poor operating stability, can intensify film
stiffness of the gas so as to guarantee film stability during
seals operation, and to maintain a stable opening force and
better sealing effect.

2.2 Structural design for the non-contacting face seal

As indicated in Figure 1, the non-contacting hydrodynamic face
seal encompasses rotor (3), stator (4), stator foundation (5),
and support element (6). And the hydrodynamic face seal avail
itself of the hydrodynamic effect to improve the lubrication
performance between faces such that fluid film of a certain
thickness is maintained so as to realize non-contact between
faces. Such fluid lubrication performance between faces is the
result of viscous fluid flow performance under the small gap
constraint (Zhang et al., 2011b; Miller and Green, 2003;
Liu et al., 2007). Non-contacting hydrodynamic face seals serve
to guarantee the constant existence of gap between faces, which
distinguishes hydrodynamic face seals from ordinary
mechanical face seals. The introduction of the surface
modification technology, namely, a dynamic pressure groove
of micron level on the surface of the rotor, increases the
Figure 1 A diagram of seal for the liquid oxygen turbine turbopump
1

Figure 2 Double-groove structure of seal rotor

Ordinary spiral groove

Notes: 1 shaft, 2 U seal ring, 3 rotor, 4 stator,

5 stator foundation, 6 support element (spring),
7 labyrinth seal, 8 O seal ring

Seal dam
Herringbone spiral groove

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Figure 4 The photo of the entire testing system

In the present design, in order to obtain a more complete

picture on the performance of the new seal, rotors with two
different face groove depths (30 and 3 mm, respectively) were
specially designed and processed, and ultimately generated
three distinct face seal structures when combined with stators.
To evaluate the above design, a total of six sets of seal, have
been produced so as to conduct six sets of hydrodynamic seal
test under different sealing pressure and speed conditions.

Non-contacting face seal

2.4 The processing of the spiral groove in the rotor face

Photo lithography is adopted in spiral groove processing based
on the consideration that conventional machining fails to
meet the requirements of fine structure, high precision and
strict roughness, posed by the spiral groove, especially when
the seal ring used in dynamic pressure groove processing is
made of hard materials. Photo lithography, a special
processing method (Ogasawara, 2009; Waclavek et al.,
1998), uses the photochemical etching process, which finds
wide applications in printed circuit board processing and
dashboard processing. In the photochemical etching process,
the processed component should be coated with a layer of
corrosion-proof photographic film, which, through its
photochemical reaction, can uncover the part that needs
corrosion. Then the chemical etching liquid is applied to the
exposed part for etching. The final spiral groove structure of
the rotor face is shown in Figure 3.

Flexible table

Ball bearings support equipment

Gear-box

leakage behind face seal Q1, fluid outlet temperature t2 and so

on. On the other hand, face film parameters include film
pressure at the seal dam P3, and face film temperature t3.
The face film pressure P3, one of the key parameters in the
present test, reflects the lubrication state at the seal face, reveals
whether the faces have fallen into the contacting state, and also
indicates the hydrodynamic pressure at the face gap structure.
A hole of F2 mm is opened at the stators graphite side so as to
measure the film pressure P 3 at the films seal dam.
Furthermore, to further investigate the friction condition at
the face, the present study also measures the face film
temperatures t3. Because graphite is a material with good
thermal conductivity, the present study measures the
temperature at the point, 1 mm away from the graphite
contact face, which represents the film temperature
approximately. Apart from these, the study originally intended
to measure liquid film thickness, but the attempt failed due to
the fact that the measurement error for the film of ten-to-tens
mm thick is particularly susceptible to the systematic error,
induced by the sensors and rotor axial movement.
Table I unfolds the main performance parameters of the
testing system while Table II shows the measurement errors of
various data.
The structure parameters of the seal ring are shown in
Table III.
The testing process falls into two stages. Stage 1 focused on
the testing of the structure with the spiral groove of 30 mm depth
whereas Stage 2 concentrated on the testing of the structure
with the spiral groove of 3 mm depth at the rotor surface.

3. The testing system, data collection and tested

objects
Figure 4 presents the photo of the entire testing system while
Figures 5 and 6 are the schematic diagrams for the testing
system and for the tested face seal, respectively. As indicated by
the figures, the entire testing system is composed of the
transmission, sealing and data acquisition systems. The
transmission system encompasses a variable frequency motor,
a speed-enhancing box, a coupling, a transmission shaft, rolling
bear supporting devices and other components. The tested face
seal system embraces the supplementary seal (an O-ring), the
tested hydrodynamic seal, the pressure source for the seal fluid,
the sealing chamber, the leakage recovery device and other
devices.
The data acquisition system makes use of the computerized
real-time acquisition system, which can capture measurement
changes accurately. Measurement parameters are classified into
two kinds: conventional parameters and face film parameters.
Conventional parameters involve test bed running power N,
fluid inlet pressure P1, fluid inlet flow G1, fluid inlet temperature
t1, fluid outlet flow G2, fluid pressure behind face seal P2, fluid
Figure 3 The spiral groove structure of the rotor face

4. Test results and analysis

4.1 Test results and analysis of the seal performance
(the rotors with the groove depth of 30 mm)
Figures 7-10 present the sealing operation power N, seal dam
film pressure P3, face temperature t3 and leakage Q1,
respectively, in relation to speed and pressure, respectively.
Figure 7 shows that the sealing operation power increases with
the rotational speed and water inlet pressure (P1). When the
speed is the same and the inlet pressure increases from 1.0 to
1.75 MPa, the operation power climbs markedly with an average
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Figure 5 The seal testing system and schematic diagram for the test
5

Notes: 1 flexible table, 2 electromotor, 3 gear-box, 4 flexible link device, 5 ball bearings
support equipment, 6 non-contacting face seal in test
Figure 6 The structure of the non-contacting face seal
5

4
3
2

Table III Main parameters of the seal ring

8

9 10

Water Inlet

11
Leakage

Parameter

Value

Internal diameter of rotors (Ro /mm)

External diameter of rotors (Ri /mm)
Groove diameter of external spiral grooves (Rog /mm)
Groove diameter of internal spiral grooves (Rig /mm)
Internal diameter of the seal dam (Rmg /mm)
Ratio of groove and dam (g )
Width of the seal dam (b/mm)
Width of the contacting face (B/mm)
Groove number
Groove depth (hg/mm)
Helix angle (a)

54.5
65.5
61
57.4
59
1.0
2
11
30
30 and 3
158

Figure 7 The sealing operation power vs rotational speed and water

inlet pressure

Notes: 1 rotor, 2 pressure sensor, 3 temperature sensor,

4 stator, 5 O ring, 6 compressed spring, 7 load equipment
house, 8 sensor for friction moment, 9 electromagnetic load
equipment, 10 and 11 displacement sensor

60
50

P1 = 1.75 MPa

Speed
Rated power
Test pressure
Diameter of the tested seal

Power (KW)

Table I The main performance parameters of the testing system

Parameters

P1 = 1.00 MPa

Performance scope
0-40,000 rpm
55 KW
0-5 MPa
0-150 mm

40

P1 = 2.50 MPa

30
20
10

Table II Measurement errors

Parameters
Speed (n)
Power (N)
Pressure (P)
Temperature (t)
Flow (Q)

0
6,000

Errors
# ^ 1%
# ^ 5%
# ^ 0.10 MPa
# ^ 1%
#2.0 l/s

9,000

12,000
15,000
Speed (r/min)

18,000

21,000

Note: hg = 30 mm
between faces, and meanwhile the formed film is relatively thick
and stable (uneasily damaged). It can also be seen from Figure 7
that when the inlet pressure is less than 2.5 MPa, the seal
operation power is within 50 KW, which is less than that of
ordinary contacting face seal. For the ordinary contacting face
seal with the same structure as the tested one (supposing the
friction coefficient of carbon graphite to steel is 0.15 (Yongquan,
2002), the spring pressure is 0.6 MPa, and the complete contact

increase of about 3.0 KW whereas when the speed is the same

and the fluid inlet pressure jumps from 1.75 to 2.50 MPa, the
operation power varies marginally. This is mainly because the
higher the inlet pressure is, the easier the formation of film
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area is p R2o 2 R2i ), the friction power generated under the
operating condition of 2,000 rpm, has already surpassed 60 KW.
Figure 8 indicates that the film pressure increases with the
rotational speed and pressure. With the seal water pressure
being 1.0 MPa, when the rotational speed is within the lower
range, the film pressure is too low to be measured. When the
speed reaches around 8,000 rpm, the film pressure becomes
measurable; when the speed rises to 20,000 rpm, the film
pressure even exceeds the inlet pressure of the seal fluid water,
which demonstrates good hydrodynamic effect. Apart from
this, the recorded test data reveal that P3 remains stable under
each working condition (operation lasting 2 min) and hence the
test results at the inlet pressure of 1.0 MPa, as shown in Figure 8,
are no accident. At that moment, lubrication is not in full film
lubrication state, and face contact still exists. Figure 8 also
uncovers that when the water pressure grows to 1.75 or
2.50 MPa, P3 still increases with the rotational speed, and with
the water pressure being 2.50 MPa and the rotational speed
being 20,000 rpm, P3 even amounts to 1.86 MPa, which
sufficiently confirms the existence of liquid film. Also seen from
Figure 8 is that the higher the seal pressure is, the faster the film
pressure rises, which is reflected in the growing curve slope.
The seal leakage and face temperature are a pair of
contradictions (Hirani and Goilkar, 2009). That is to say, the
face temperature drops as the leakage grows and the
temperature goes up as the leakage goes down. In view of this,
both Figures 9 and 10 are referenced in order to analyze the seal
leakage and face temperature at the same time. An interesting
phenomenon, found in Figures 9 and 10, is that when the seal
pressure turns to 1.75 or 2.5 MPa and the rotational speed
climbs to 17,000 rpm, the leakage reaches its peak and
meanwhile the face temperature hits a trough, which is
probably due to the ostensible upstream pumping effect
emerged at the open spiral groove face seal. The speed of
17,000 rpm serves as a cutting point. In other words, with
increasing speed, the internal herringbone spiral groove starts to
incur film thickness decrease and pressure decrease (as shown in
Figure 8), which leads to substantial change in film pressure
distribution between faces, and a new balance at the film.
Under the conditions of 1.0 Mpa pressure and 17,000 r/min
speed, the film pressure of seal is of the maximum pressure
(as shown in Figure 8), and face contact exists. Existence of face
contact incurs leakage decrease and temperature increase. Yet,
when the speed rises from 17,000 to 20,000 r/min, the
hydrodynamic effect is intensified, which triggers pressure
(P3) decrease, temperature decrease, and leakage increase.
As shown in Figure 9, when the inlet pressure becomes
1.75 or 2.50 MPa, temperature fluctuates slightly around 458.
Overall, temperature varies marginally with the speed yet
relatively greatly with the pressure. The greater the pressure
is, the higher the temperature is. With the sealed pressure
dropping to 1.0 MPa, the same tendency also applies when
the rotational speed is below 14,000 rpm; however, when the
speed continues to rise mutation starts to take place. With
reference to the foregoing discussion on film pressure, as
shown in Figure 8, it is probably due to the fact that with
the pressure of 1.0 MPa and rotational speed of 17,000 rpm,
the film passes into the critical point of another state (or more
pronounced effect induced by another force, such as the force
derived from the dynamic effect).
Figure 10 indicates that the leakage in the test, which is the
most important performance measurement in this study,
basically vacillates around 40 ml/s with a narrow range of

Figure 8 The film pressure vs rotational speed and water inlet pressure
2.1
P1 = 1.00 MPa

1.8
Film pressure (Mpa)

P1 = 1.75 MPa
1.5

P1 = 2.50 MPa

1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
6,000

9,000

12,000
15,000
Speed (r/min)

18,000

21,000

Note: hg = 30 mm
Figure 9 The face temperature vs rotational speed and fluid inlet
pressure
60

Face temperature (C)

50
40
30
P1 = 1.00 MPa

20

P1 = 1.75 MPa
P1 = 2.50 MPa

10
0
6,000

9,000

12,000
15,000
Speed (r/min)

18,000

21,000

Note: hg = 30 mm
Figure 10 The leakage vs rotational speed and fluid inlet pressure
60

Leakage (m/s)

48

36

P1 = 1.00 MPa

24

P1 = 1.75 MPa
P1 = 2.50 MPa

12

0
6,000

9,000

12,000
15,000
Speed (r/min)

18,000

21,000

Note: hg = 30 mm
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Zhang Guo-yuan, Wei-gang Zhao and Yan Xiu Tian

Volume 66 Number 2 2014 314 321

18-54 ml/s for the rotational speed of 1,000-2,000 rpm. This is

particularly true when the seal pressure is 1.0 MPa, where there
is a very narrow leakage in the range of 30-48 ml/s within the
whole test speed spectrum. Importantly, if the seal pressure
continues to increase from 1 to 2.5 MPa, the leakage still
remains within the above range, which is a sure sign of the
effectiveness of the new design. It is worth noting that at a low
speed, the leakage performance improves as the pressure
increases from 1 to 2.5 MPa and stabilizes for higher speeds and
for all pressures. This is a very desirable performance for higher
pressure, high-speed applications. The aforementioned results
suggest that the proposed hydrodynamic non-contacting face
seal design is successful and effective in meeting the design
requirements. Regarding the leakage control problem, potential
improvements embrace structural parameter optimization for
the face spiral groove, groove channel optimization, spring
pressure adjustment, and so on. The study on the controllable
spiral-groove face seals to improve the current design is being
conducted, and the results will be published in other papers.
Figure 11 presents a photo of the rotor after testing. As shown
in Figure 11, there are some slight scratches only along the outer
edge of the weir area of the external groove. This is mainly owing
to the contact friction induced by the starting and stopping
processes during which the rotational speed is too low to
generate full film so that friction arises, and varying speed
control is limited so that scratches occur. In addition, due to the
short duration of such processes, wear is minimal and all too
often involves only scratches. Yellow traces could be found at the
angular side of the herringbone groove as well as at the angular
side of the junction between the herringbone spiral groove and
the external spiral groove dam, and those traces could be
attributed to the fact that face film, affected by the shear stressinduced pressure increase and wall friction between film and
face, leads to increased temperature on the film face.

Figure 12 The sealing operation power vs rotational speed and fluid

inlet pressure
40
35

Power (KW)

P1 = 1.00 MPa
30

P1 = 1.75 MPa

25

P1 = 2.50 MPa

20
15
10
5
0
6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000 14,000
Speed (r/min)

16,000

18,000

Note: hg = 3 mm
Figure 13 The film pressure vs rotational speed and fluid inlet pressure
1.0
P1 = 1.00 MPa
P1 = 1.75 MPa

Film presure (Mpa)

0.8

4.2 Test results and analysis of the seal performance

(the rotors with groove depth 3 mm)
The test targets at the rotor of 3 mm, and test conditions are the
same as those of rotors with the groove depth of 30 mm. Because
when the rotational speed exceeds 17,000 rpm, air-puffing
(water vaporization) starts to occur, no further test was run
under the condition of 20,000 rpm. The independent leakage
Q1 at each rotational speed fails to obtain due to its small
amount of flow whereas the total leakage of the entire 25-min
operation process is approximately 4,000 ml, namely, an
average of 160 ml/min (2.67 ml/s), which is much lower than
that of the rotor with 30 mm depth groove (40 ml/s).
Figures 12-14 present the test results of the sealing operation

P1 = 2.50 MPa
0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000 14,000
Speed (r/min)

16,000

18,000

Note: hg = 3 mm

power N, seal dam film pressure P3 and face temperature t3

under different pressures and rotational speeds, respectively.
Figure 12 shows that as is true of the test result of the rotor
of 30 mm, the operation power of seal increases with the
rotational speed and seal pressure. However, under higher
seal pressure (such as 1.75, 2.50 MPa), the operation power is
nearly impervious to the seal pressure and the two curves
almost overlap with each other, which is consistent with the
test result for the rotor of 30 mm. Also, with the seal pressure
being 1.0 MPa and the rotational speed being 17,000 rpm, the
operation power is relatively great, which is ascribed to
significant fluctuations of the operation power in this case;
meanwhile, air-puffing and unstable operation start to occur.
As can be seen from Figure 13, the film pressure grows with the
rotational speed; conversely it falls with increasing seal pressure,
which does not accord with the test result for the rotor of 30 mm.
The major cause for the inconsistency is probably that at low
rotational speeds, the face film pressure mainly comes from the

Figure 11 The photo of the rotors after test

Note: hg = 30 mm

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Figure 14 The face temperature vs rotational speed and fluid inlet

pressure

rotational speed, higher seal pressure gives rise to more wall dry
or contact friction and subsequently more heat, which in turn
leads to higher temperature, and with increasing rotational
speed and comparatively greater seal pressure, sufficient film
has been formed so that the face temperature is quite lower.
The rotor photo after testing is shown in Figure 15. As can
be seen from the photo, great wear arises in the contact face,
the area within the seal dam in particular; many scratches
appear in the external groove weir, and much more serious
scratches are found in the internal groove area; some area in
the internal groove weir turns into purple, the turning point of
the miter groove becomes yellow, and ostensible wear is found
at the seal dam. All these phenomena can lead to one
conclusion that during the operation, high face temperature
induces insufficient film and consequently poor lubrication
effect, which can also find support from the test data, namely,
the maximum temperature hits 1248C, which is also a trigger
for the air-puffing phenomenon in the test.

140
P1 = 1.00 MPa
P1 = 1.75 MPa
P1 = 2.50 MPa

100
80
60
40
20
0
6,000

8,000

10,000 12,000 14,000

Speed (r/min)

16,000

18,000

4.3 A contrast of seal performance between grooves with

different depths during the start-up stage
Figure 16 presents a contrast of the operation power and film
pressure between grooves with different depths when the
rotational speed increases.
As shown in Figure 16, there exists a trough at the speed of
8,000 rpm in the curve of the operation power as opposed to the
rotational speed. In other words, when the speed increases from
the starting point to 8,000 rpm, the operation power keeps
falling, but when the speed continues to rise, the operation
power starts to rise too. This phenomenon reflects the whole
process during which the hydrodynamic effect is gradually
enhanced and the lubrication film is formed. At the starting
period, the faces are in direct contact and the film has not been
formed so that during the following period when the rotational
speed increases, the faces are in the state of dry and mixed
frictions and accordingly the operation power is larger; when the
rotational speed exceeds the critical separation speed of the face,
with formed film, the face falls into the state of fluid lubrication
and the friction between faces mainly comes from the shear
friction between films so that the operation power is at its lowest;
conversely, as the rotational speed continues to rise, the shear
friction between films becomes increasingly intense, which is
reflected in the gradual increasing operation power. When the
seal pressure is 1.0 MPa, the film pressure goes up with the
rotational speed. The film pressure generated in the groove of

Note: hg = 3 mm
hydrostatic pressure while the hydrostatic pressure generated at
the groove of 3 mm is quite low. Another possible explanation
might be that the measured face film pressure covers both film
pressure and contact pressure incurred by rough contact. In the
case of great water pressure, regarding the face seal in the state of
full hydrodynamic lubrication, the film pressure goes up with the
seal pressure. In the final analysis, under a lower water pressure,
the test process coupled with the test results fails to reveal the
inherent characteristics of the hydrodynamic seal film. For one
thing, the shallow spiral groove leads to insufficient film, which
manifests itself in the seal face wear after test (as shown in
Figure 15). For another, prior to increasing the seal pressure to
1.75 MPa, the temperature has climbed to 124.68C (gasification
phenomena of water occur) on account of the fact that the
operation has already lasted 7 min under the seal pressure of
1.0 MPa and great air-puffing occurs when the rotational speed
turns to 17,000 rpm. In this connection, the scheduled time was
decreased by 1 min and the seal pressure was raised to 1.75 MPa
immediately, which probably brings about great wear on the
spiral groove face and sealing dam, and then resulted in poorer
hydrostatic and hydrodynamic effect of the spiral groove.
Figure 14 unfolds that the face temperature varies with the
rotational speed and seal pressure. Specifically, the face
temperature increases with the rotational speed whereas when
the rotational speed exceeds about 14,000 rpm, the face
temperature starts to drop as the seal pressure goes up. This
phenomenon can be explained by the fact that with the lower

Figure 16 Power and film pressure changes with rotational speed

3.0

35
30

Figure 15 The photo of the rotors after test

Power (KW)

25
20

N (hg = 30 m)
P3 (hg = 30 m)
P3 (hg = 3 m)
N (hg = 3 m)

1.5
1.0
0.5

5
0
6,000

320

2.0

15
10

Note: hg = 3 mm

2.5

8,000

0.0
10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000
Speed (r/min)

Film pressure (MPa)

Face temperature (C)

120

Experimental study on water lubrication

Industrial Lubrication and Tribology

Zhang Guo-yuan, Wei-gang Zhao and Yan Xiu Tian

Volume 66 Number 2 2014 314 321

30 mm is higher than that of 3 mm, which is chiefly due to the

fluid static pressure and the fact that the deeper groove is more
conductive to film formation.

Liu, Z., Liu, Y. and Liu, X. (2007), Optimization design of

main parameters for double spiral grooves face seal,
Science in China, Series E: Technological Sciences, Vol. 50,
pp. 448-453.
Miller, B.A. and Green, I. (2003), Semi-analytical dynamic
analysis of spiral-grooved mechanical gas face seals,
J. Tribol. Trans. ASME, Vol. 125, pp. 403-413.
Ogasawara, Y. (2009), Flattening property of a surface due
to optical assisted chemical near-field etching, Appl. Phys.
B, Vol. 97, pp. 1-3.
Waclavek, J., Krausko, G. and Skriniarova, J. (1998),
Optical in situ monitoring of wet chemical etching,
Surf. Interface Anal., Vol. 26, pp. 56-61.
Wang, Y., Wang, J., Yang, H., Jiang, N. and Sun, X. (2004),
Theoretical analyses and design guidelines of oil-filmlubricated mechanical face seals with spiral grooves, Tribol.
Trans., Vol. 47, pp. 537-542.
Yongquan, G. (2002), Applied Technology of Mechanical Seals,
Machine Press, Beijing (in Chinese).
Zhang, G., Yuan, X., Zhao, W., Li, Z. and Yang, S. (2008),
Theoretical and experimental approach of separation
speed of spiral groove face seals, Jixie Gongcheng Xuebao/
Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 44, pp. 55-60
(in Chinese).
Zhang, G.Y., Zhao, W.G., Yan, X.T. and Yuan, X.Y. (2011a),
Experimental approach for water-lubricated high-speed
controllable spiral-groove face seals, Journal of Aerospace
Power, Vol. 26, pp. 947-953 (in Chinese).
Zhang, G.Y., Zhao, W.G., Yan, X.T. and Yuan, X.Y. (2011b),
Theoretical and experimental study on characteristics of
water-lubricated double spiral grooved seals, Tribol. Trans.,
Vol. 54, pp. 362-369.

5. Conclusions
The experimental results of the non-contact hydrodynamic seal
with the external spiral groove and inner herringbone groove are
obtained, and the groove depths used in the study are 30 and 3 mm,
respectively. The main results from the experimental tests include:
.
Under the full film hydrodynamic lubrication condition,
the film pressure increases with the speed.
.
The film pressure increases with the sealed water pressure.
.
The operation power of the non-contact hydrodynamic
seal is low, and is almost impervious to the seal fluid
pressure so that it is desirable to apply the hydrodynamic
seal to the high-pressure situations.
.
When the hydrodynamic seal is employed with liquid, the
performance of the seal with the groove depth 30 mm is
relatively good than that of the groove depth 3 mm and
more suitable to use in the high speed (there is
20,000 rpm) work environment.
.
The hydrodynamic seal can achieve the objectives of microwear, long life, micro-leakage, and even zero leakage.

References
Hirani, H. and Goilkar, S.S. (2009), Formation of transfer
layer and its effect on friction and wear of carbon-graphite
face seal under dry, water and steam environments, Wear,
Vol. 266, pp. 1141-1154.
Jones, G.A. (2004), On the tribological behaviour of
mechanical seal face materials in dry line contact: part II.
Bulk ceramics, diamond and diamond-like carbon films,
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Li, Z., Zhang, G., Yuan, X., Zhao, W., Xu, H. and Xie, Y.
(2006), Static and dynamic characteristics of hydrodynamic
mechanical seal, Zhongguo Jixie Gongcheng/China
Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 17, pp. 457-460 (in Chinese).

Corresponding author
Zhang Guo-yuan can be contacted at: gyzhang@nwpu.edu.cn

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