Influence of different types of seals on the stability behavior of turbopumps

One of the main problems in designing a centrifugal pump is to achieve a good efficiency while not neglecting the dynamic performance of the machine. The first aspect leads to the design of grooved seals in order to minimize the leakage flow. But the influence of these grooves to the dynamic behavior is not well known. Experimental and theoretical results of the rotordynamic coefficients for different groove shapes and depths in seals is presented. In addition, the coefficients are applied to a simple pump model.