A TEHD Lubrication Analysis of Surface Textured Mechanical Seals

A mixed-TEHD (thermal-elasto-hydrodynamic) model was developed to study the surface textured mechanical seal. The model consisted of JFO cavitation, surface roughness and asperity contact, thermal-elastic deformations, temperature and viscosity variations. Finite element method was adopted to analyze the liquid film pressure, the film thickness and the film temperature distribution in several typical surface texture (e.g. circles, squares, and triangles) for studying the effect of texture shape on sealing performance parameter in the steady state during the operation of aviation pumps. The results show that the surface texture had pronounced influence on the surface temperature and pressure distribution. Mechanical seal with triangular 2 texture had maximum film load carrying capacity, minimum viscous friction coefficient, maximum film stiffness and leakage lower than the requirements at low pressure, hence the performance was optimal.