Microscale Flow Field Analysis and Flow Prediction Model Exploration of Dry Gas Seal

The characteristics of high speed, high pressure, microscale, and rotating flow fields result in very complicated flow between the dynamic and static rings of a dry gas seal. In particular, the existence of a groove, dam, and weir further contribute to the uncertainty of a microscale flow field. Classically, the flow regime of pipe flow is determined based on the critical Reynolds number (Pipe model) while the rotating flow field is sometimes determined by the flow factor (Oval model). In this study, a new method was developed that can be used for prediction of flow regime of a dry gas seal rotating flow field based on a three-dimensional velocity component (Ellipsoid model). The aim was to make the given model reflect the flow regime more realistically based on the consideration of the axial velocity component. When modeling dry gas seal rotating flow fields, we showed that compared to the one-dimensional Pipe model and the two-dimensional Oval model, the three-dimensional Ellipsoid model proposed in this paper can produce more accurate results.