Leakage and Rotordynamic Force Coefficients of a Labyrinth Seal and a Pocket Damper Seal Operating With Wet Gas

Subsea centrifugal compressors commonly using labyrinth seals (LS) and pocket damper seals (PDS) must withstand the flow of oil in gas mixtures with a liquid volume fraction (LVF) up to 5%. This paper presents experimental results for the leakage and rotordynamic coefficients of a uniform clearance PDS and a similar size LS both supplied with wet gas. The shaft diameter D = 127 mm and the seal axial length L = 48 mm. In the tests, the seals' pressure ratio (inlet/exit) = 2.5, and the shaft speed reaches 5.25 krpm (surface speed = 35 m/s). The LS has a 17% larger radial clearance (C_r,LS = 0.230 mm > C_r,PDS = 0.196 mm) due to a manufacturing error. This paper extends prior work by Torres et al. (2022, “A Stepped Shaft Labyrinth Seal versus a Pocket Damper Seal: Leakage and Dynamic Force Coefficients Under Wet Gas Operation,” ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, 145(1), p. 011006) for the same two seal types with a stepped clearance configuration that promotes damping. When supplied with a dry gas, the LS leaks more because of its larger clearance. A loss coefficient (c_d) is a fraction of the physical clearance that characterizes a seal's effectiveness in reducing leakage. The c_d of both seals is nearly identical for operation with pure gas; the small differences are well within the experimental uncertainty. For operation with wet gas, the PDS c_d decreases as the LVF increases whereas the LS c_d increases, thus indicating the PDS is more effective to restrict wet gas leakage. When operating with pure gas, the direct stiffness (K) and effective damping (C_eff) of both seals are small in magnitude (K < 0.5 MN/m, C_eff < 2 kN-s/m) and often less than the experimental uncertainty. For wet gas operation and with shaft speed = 3 krpm and 5.25 krpm, the PDS produces C_eff < 0 for whirl frequencies below 50 Hz. In contrast, the LS C_eff > 0, although small in magnitude. The experimental results under wet gas operation are similar for operation with LVF equal to 3% and 5%. Unexpected low-frequency broadband motions appear when supplying the PDS with a wet gas. Although small in amplitude (<5 μm), the motions increase in severity as the mixture inlet LVF and shaft speed increase. The motions are entirely absent for tests with the LS. Experiments in which the mixture is drawn from the PDS cavities rule out liquid accumulation as the cause of the observed motions. The current test results serve as a reference for turbomachinery design engineers and aid in the validation of analytical predictive tools.