An experimental study of dynamic characteristics of labyrinth seal

The fluid force due to labyrinth seal sometimes makes the turbomachineries unstable under higher rotating speed, higher pressure and higher power. Therefore, it is important to predict the magnitude and the direction of the fluid force and to evaluate the stability of the rotor system in design process. This paper shows the experimental results of the fluid force induced by a straight labyrinth seal and the rotordynamic coefficients calculated from the fluid force. Influences of the number of fins under the rotating speed, whirling speed, inlet pressure, and inlet tangential velocity are mainly investigated on a stability of the rotor system. The results show that increase of the number of fins makes the fluid force small and the rotor system stable, an increase of inlet pressure makes the fluid forces large and an increase of inlet tangential velocity makes the rotor system unstable.