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At least 505 records · Page 28
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Flight set 360H005 (STS-28) seals, volume 4

The performance is assessed of the 360H005, Fifth flight, Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors (RSMR) in respect to joint sealing issues as seen from post flight inspection of the seals and sealing surfaces. The factory joint disassembly inspections have resumed for 360H005. The new factory joint grease application is in effect and now can be assessed during the disassembly process. The RSRM is illustrated consisting of capture feature field joints as is the J-joint insulation configuration. The nozzle-to-case joint design is also illustrated, which includes 100, 7/8 inch radial bolts in conjunction with a wiper O-ring and modified insulation design. The ignition system seals and a cross section of the igniter are illustrated. The configuration of all the internal nozzle joints are also shown. The postflight inspection of both motors showed the seal components to be in excellent condition except for the indentation found on the inner primary seal of the right hand inner igniter gasket, aft face. Detailed inspection results, and inspections performed by the O-ring Inspection Team are presented.

Curry, Jeffrey T.↗
NASA NTRS1991

High temperature seals between ceramic separation membranes and super-alloy housing

One of the concepts for oxygen production from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide involves the use of tubular electrochemical membranes for oxygen separation. The tubular configuration offers the advantage of being able to separate the oxygen at pressures of up to 500 psi, thereby eliminating the need for a pre-liquefaction oxygen compressor. A key technology that has to be developed in order for the electrochemical separator to combine as a compressor is a high temperature static seal between the ceramic separation cell and the nickel-based super-alloy tube. Equipment was designed and fabricated to test the seals. Efforts are under way to develop a finite element model to study the thermal stresses at the joints and on the seal, and the optimal shape of the seal. The choice of seal materials and the technique to be used to fabricate the seals are also being investigated.

Honea, G.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Double face sealing device

A double face sealing device is disclosed for mounting between two surfaces to provide an air-tight and fluid-tight seal between a closure member bearing one of the surfaces and a structure or housing bearing the other surface which extends around the opening or hatchway to be closed. The double face sealing device includes a plurality of sections or segments mounted to one of the surfaces, each having a main body portion, a pair of outwardly extending and diverging, cantilever, spring arms, and a pair of inwardly extending and diverging, cantilever, spring arms, an elastomeric cover on the distal, free ends of the outwardly extending and diverging spring arms, and an elastomeric cover on the distal, free, ends of the outwardly extending and diverging spring arms, and an elastomeric cover on the distal, free ends of the inwardly extending and diverging spring arms. The double face sealing device has application or use in all environments requiring a seal, but is particularly useful to seal openings or hatchways between compartments of spacecraft or aircraft.

Weddendorf, Bruce↗
NASA NTRS1991

High temperature NASP engine seals: A technology review

Progress in developing advanced high temperature engine seal concepts and related sealing technologies for advanced hypersonic engines are reviewed. Design attributes and issues requiring further development for both the ceramic wafer seal and the braided ceramic rope seal are examined. Leakage data are presented for these seals for engine simulated pressure and temperature conditions and compared to a target leakage limit. Basic elements of leakage flow models to predict leakage rates for each of these seals over the wide range of pressure and temperature conditions anticipated in the engine are also presented.

Steinetz, Bruce M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Army Research Concerns in Engine Sealing

The Army Propulsion Directorate is primarily concerned with small engine technology, where sealing performance is most critical. Tip leakage and secondary flow losses have a much greater performance impact on small engine aero-components than on large engines. A brief survey and critique of presently employed sealing concepts is presented. Some recent new research thrusts that show promise for substantial improvement are discussed. An especially promising approach for small engine applications is brush seals. Brush seal concepts are being considered for outer air seal and secondary airflow system seal locations.

Bill, Robert C.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Seal Technology at Rocketdyne

Seal codes currently in use and their capabilities are discussed. Among the codes currently in use are codes for simulating floating ring seals, face seals, and load sharing seals. New codes that will extend simulation capability to barotropic fluid properties, phase change, brush seal performance, large scale roughness, and asymmetric boundary conditions are under development. Planned seal testing and fluid film bearing activity are also presented.

Scharrer, Joe↗
NASA NTRS1991

Actively controlled shaft seals for aerospace applications

Actively controlled mechanical seals have recently been developed for industrial use. This study investigates the feasibility of using such seals for aerospace applications. In a noncontacting mechanical seal, the film thickness depends on the geometry of the seal interface. The amount of coning, which is a measure of the radial convergence or divergence of the seal interface, has a primary effect on the film thickness. Active control of the film thickness is established by controlling the coning with a piezoelectric material. A mathematical model has been formulated to predict the performance of an actively controlled mechanical seal.

Salant, Richard F.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Inflatable traversing probe seal

An inflatable seal acts as a pressure-tight zipper to provide traversing capability for instrumentation rakes and probes. A specially designed probe segment with a teardrop cross-section in the vicinity of the inflatable seal minimizes leakage at the interface. The probe is able to travel through a lengthwise slot in a pressure vessel or wind tunnel section, while still maintaining pressure integrity. The design uses two commercially available inflatable seals, opposing each other, to cover the probe slot in a wind tunnel wall. Proof-of-concept tests were conducted at vessel pressures up to 30 psig, with seals inflated to 50 psig, showing no measurable leakage along the seal's length or around the probe teardrop cross-section. This seal concept can replace the existing technology of sliding face plate/O-ring systems in applications where lengthwise space is limited.

Trimarchi, Paul A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

High-Temperature, Flexible, Pressure-Assisted Brush Seal

Ceramic-fibers brush and integral spring clip block hot, engine flows. High-temperature, pressure-assisted brush seal installed in movable panel in advanced hypersonic engine. Seal prevents flow of hot engine gas from penetrating gap between movable panel and adjacent stationary panel. Potential applications include sealing gaps in variable-geometry two-dimensional turbojet exhaust nozzles or sealing control surface gaps of hypersonic vehicles. Ceramic brush seals also used as structural seals in high-temperature furnaces or advanced ceramic heat exchangers.

Steinetz, Bruce M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Experimental study of the flow field inside a whirling annular seal

The flow field inside a whirling annular seal was measured using a 3-D Laser Doppler Anemometer (LDA) system. The seal investigated has a clearance of 1.27 mm, a length of 37.3 mm, and is mounted on a drive shaft with a 50 percent eccentricity ratio. This results in the rotor whirling at the same speed as the shaft rotation (whirl ratio = 1.0). The seal is operated at Reynolds number of 12,000 and a Taylor number of 6,300 (3,600 rpm). The 3-D LDA system is equipped with a rotary encoding system which is used to produce phase averaged measurements of the entire mean velocity vector field and Reynolds stress tensor field from 0.13 mm upstream to 0.13 mm downstream of the seal. The mean velocity field reveals a highly three dimensional flow field with large radial velocities near the inlet of the seal as well as a recirculation zone on the rotor surface. The location of maximum mean axial velocity migrates from the pressure side of the rotor at the inlet to the suction side at turbulence kinetic energy. However, turbulence production and dissipation attain equilibrium fairly quickly with remaining relatively constant over the last half of the seal.

Morrison, Gerald L.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Actively controlled shaft seals for aerospace applications

An electronically controlled mechanical seal for use as the purge gas seal in a liquid oxygen turbo pump has been fabricated and tested under transient operating conditions. The thickness of the lubricating film is controlled by adjusting the coning of the carbon face. This is accomplished by applying a voltage to a piezoelectric actuator to which the carbon face is bonded. The seal has been operated with a closed-loop control system that utilizes either the leakage rate or the seal face temperature as the feedback. Both speed and pressure transients have been imposed on the seal. The transient tests have demonstrated that the seal is capable of maintaining low leakage rates while limiting the face temperatures.

Salant, Richard F.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Brush seals for cryogenic applications

Brush seals are compliant, contacting seals and have significantly lower leakage than labyrinth seals in gas turbine applications. Their characteristics of long life and low leakage make them candidates for use in rocket engine turbopumps. Two-inch diameter brush seals with a nominal 0.005 inch radial interference were tested in liquid nitrogen at shaft speeds up to 35,000 rpm and pressure drops up to 175 psid per seal. A labyrinth seal was also tested to provide a baseline. Performance, staging effects, and wear results are presented.

Proctor, Margaret P.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Air Force seal activities

Seal technology development is an important part of the Air Force's participation in the Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology (IHPTET) initiative, the joint DOD, NASA, ARPA, and industry endeavor to double turbine engine capabilities by the turn of the century. Significant performance and efficiency improvements can be obtained through reducing internal flow system leakage, but seal environment requirements continue to become more extreme as the engine thermodynamic cycles advance towards these IHPTET goals. Brush seal technology continues to be pursued by the Air Force to reduce leakage at the required conditions. Likewise, challenges in engine mainshaft air/oil seals are also being addressed. Counter-rotating intershaft applications within the IHPTET initiative involve very high rubbing velocities. This viewgraph presentation briefly describes past and current seal research and development programs and gives a summary of seal applications in demonstrator and developmental engine testing.

Mayhew, Ellen R.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Numerical Simulation of Flow in a Whirling Annular Seal and Comparison with Experiments

The turbulent flow field in a simulated annular seal with a large clearance/radius ratio (0.015) and a whirling rotor was simulated using an advanced 3D CFD code SCISEAL. A circular whirl orbit with synchronous whirl was imposed on the rotor center. The flow field was rendered quasi-steady by making a transformation to a totaling frame. Standard k-epsilon model with wall functions was used to treat the turbulence. Experimentally measured values of flow parameters were used to specify the seal inlet and exit boundary conditions. The computed flow-field in terms of the velocity and pressure is compared with the experimental measurements inside the seal. The agreement between the numerical results and experimental data with correction is fair to good. The capability of current advanced CFD methodology to analyze this complex flow field is demonstrated. The methodology can also be extended to other whirl frequencies. Half- (or sub-) synchronous (fluid film unstable motion) and synchronous (rotor centrifugal force unbalance) whirls are the most unstable whirl modes in turbomachinery seals, and the flow code capability of simulating the flows in steady as well as whirling seals will prove to be extremely useful in the design, analyses, and performance predictions of annular as well as other types of seals.

Athavale, M. M.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Electronically controlled mechanical seal for aerospace applications--Part 2: Transient tests

An electronically controlled mechanical seal for use as the purge gas seal in a liquid oxygen turbopump has been fabricated and tested under transient operating conditions. The thickness of the lubricating film is controlled by adjusting the coning of the carbon face. This is accomplished by applying a voltage to a piezoelectric actuator to which the carbon face is bonded. The seal has been operated with a closed-loop control system that utilizes either the leakage rate or seal face temperature as the feedback. Both speed and pressure transients have been imposed on the seal. The transient tests have demonstrated that the seal is capable of maintaing low leakage rates while limiting face temperatures.

Wolff, Paul J.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Analysis of Two-Phase Flow in Damper Seals for Cryogenic Turbopumps

Cryogenic damper seals operating close to the liquid-vapor region (near the critical point or slightly su-cooled) are likely to present two-phase flow conditions. Under single phase flow conditions the mechanical energy conveyed to the fluid increases its temperature and causes a phase change when the fluid temperature reaches the saturation value. A bulk-flow analysis for the prediction of the dynamic force response of damper seals operating under two-phase conditions is presented as: all-liquid, liquid-vapor, and all-vapor, i.e. a 'continuous vaporization' model. The two phase region is considered as a homogeneous saturated mixture in thermodynamic equilibrium. Th flow in each region is described by continuity, momentum and energy transport equations. The interdependency of fluid temperatures and pressure in the two-phase region (saturated mixture) does not allow the use of an energy equation in terms of fluid temperature. Instead, the energy transport is expressed in terms of fluid enthalpy. Temperature in the single phase regions, or mixture composition in the two phase region are determined based on the fluid enthalpy. The flow is also regarded as adiabatic since the large axial velocities typical of the seal application determine small levels of heat conduction to the walls as compared to the heat carried by fluid advection. Static and dynamic force characteristics for the seal are obtained from a perturbation analysis of the governing equations. The solution expressed in terms of zeroth and first order fields provide the static (leakage, torque, velocity, pressure, temperature, and mixture composition fields) and dynamic (rotordynamic force coefficients) seal parameters. Theoretical predictions show good agreement with experimental leakage pressure profiles, available from a Nitrogen at cryogenic temperatures. Force coefficient predictions for two phase flow conditions show significant fluid compressibility effects, particularly for mixtures with low mass content of vapor. Under these conditions, an increase on direct stiffness and reduction of whirl frequency ratio are shown to occur. Prediction of such important effects will motivate experimental studies as well as a more judicious selection of the operating conditions for seals used in cryogenic turbomachinery.

Arauz, Grigory L.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Aeropropulsion Technology (APT). Task 23 - Stator Seal Cavity Flow Investigation

The focus of NASA Contract NAS3-25950 Task 23 was to numerically investigate the flow through an axial compressor inner-banded stator seal cavity. The Allison/NASA developed ADPAC code was used to obtain all flow predictions. Flow through a labyrinth stator seal cavity of a high-speed compressor was modeled by coupling the cavity flow path and the main flow path of the compressor. A grid resolution study was performed to guarantee adequate grid spacing was used. Both unsteady rotor-stator-rotor interactions and steady-state isolated blade calculations were performed with and without the seal cavity present. A parameterized seal cavity study of the high-speed stator seal cavity collected a series of solutions for geometric variations. The parameter list included seal tooth gap, cavity depth, wheel speed, radial mismatch of hub flowpath, axial trench gap, hub corner treatments, and land edge treatments. Solution data presented includes radial and pitchwise distributions of flow variables and particle traces describing the flow character.

Heidegger, N. J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Seal Materials Compatible with the Electroplating Solvent Used in Constellation-X Mirrors

The existing gasket seals used in electroplating of the Constellation-X mirrors are difficult to assemble, and the current seal material is hydrophobic and too thick. The combination of the above problems result in: 1) non-uniform plating; 2) defect sites such as pits on the mirror edges; 3) "bear claws" on the edges of the mandrels and mirrors causing difficulties in shell-mirror separations; and 4) leakage of the plating solution past the seals into the mandrel causing chemical etching of the mandrel interior. This paper reports the results of this summer study in searching for alternate seal materials chemically compatible with the electroplating solvent. Fifteen common elastomeric rubber seal materials made-by Parker Seals were investigated including butyl, ethylene propylene, fluorosilicone, nitrile, Viton fluorocarbon, and silicone. Test results showed that Viton fluorocarbon compounds as a group were superior to the other tested compounds for chemical compatibility with the plating bath.

Pei, Xiong-Skiba↗