Rotating Brush Seal

The proven technology of brush seals has been extended to the mitigation of problems arising from friction and wear at the bristle-rotor interface at high surface speeds. In prototype testing, the brush is mounted on, and free to rotate with the shaft, thus providing a complaint primary seal. A face seal positioned between the backing plate of the brush seal and the housing provides a secondary seal. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the interaction between the brush bristles and the shaft at high surface speeds as well as introduce a numerical model to simulate the bristle behavior. A test facility was constructed to study the effects of centrifugal forces on bristle deflection in a single rotating brush seal. The bristle-rotor interface was observed through a video camera, which utilized a high magnification borescope and a high frequency strobe light source. Rotational speeds of the rotor and the brush seal were measured by a magnetic and optical speed sensor, respectively. Preliminary results with speeds up to 11,000 rpm show no speed differential between the brush seal and rotor, or any instability problems associated with the brush seal. Bristle liftoff from the rotor is successfully captured on video.