Proceedings of HT2007

2007 ASME-JSME Thermal Engineering Summer Heat Transfer Conference

July 8-12, 2007, Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA

HT2007-32275

OPTIMIZATION OF LABYRINTH SEAL FOR SCREW COMPRESSOR

Selvaraji M, Sam P. Joseph,

Dy. Manager, Engineer,
Technology Development, Technology Development,
Elgi Equipments Ltd, Elgi Equipments Ltd,
Coimbatore -641005 Coimbatore -641005
India India
selji@elgi.com samjoseph@elgi.com
www.elgi.com www.elgi.com

Nirmal N.
Post Graduate of Thermal Engineering,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Government College of Technology,
Coimbatore – 641 013.
India

ABSTRACT Labyrinth seal is a non-contacting type seal that uses a tortuous

Keywords: Screw compressor, Labyrinth seals, Leakage
Optimisation Heat-transfer analysis, Thermal analysis, and CFD
analysis.
There is a growing demand for compressed air in the industry
for various applications. Majority of industrial requirements is
in line with screw compressor operating range. Design and
construction of screw compressors are demanding tasks that
require advanced calculations and theoretical knowledge.
Clearances play a major role in the performance and reliability
aspects of a screw compressor.
Seals are provided in compressors to fit around rotor shafts in
order to prevent the leakage of lubricating oil and working
medium. However there is a small clearance between the seal
and rotor shaft, which can cause potential leakage of the
working medium. The performance of the compressor is
directly related to the leakage rate through the seals.
The labyrinth seal is a special type of seal, used in screw
compressors and turbo-machinery for sealing purpose.
path to minimize the gas leakage. The pressure drop occurs at
each labyrinth tooth as the medium is squeezed between the
labyrinth tooth and the rotor. The leakage through the seal is
directly related to the labyrinth profile and also the clearance
between the rotor and the labyrinth tooth.
The present work is carried out to reduce the leakage through
the labyrinth seal by optimising the tooth profile and operating
clearances.
Heat transfer analysis is carried out on the housing of the
labyrinth seal to find out the boundary temperature of the seal.
Also the heat transfer analysis on the labyrinth seal followed by
Thermo-structural analysis is carried out to find out the accurate
operating clearance of the seal.
By using CFD as a tool, the optimisation is carried out on
different design configurations of labyrinth seal by comparing
the deviation in leakage rates. Effect of rotor speed, width of
seal and pressure ratio on air leakage rate is also investigated.

1 Copyright © 2007 by ASME

A set of labyrinth seals has been designed based on the above
optimisation and tested in the compressor. The results have
been compared with the CFD prediction.
INTRODUCTION
In a screw compressor, a pair of intermeshing helical screw
rotors is housed in the housing. The rotor with profile outside
the pitch circle is called male or main rotor, the rotor with
profile inside the pitch circle is called female or gate rotor. The
ball bearing on the rotors takes axial forces of the screw
compressor. Similarly, the cylindrical roller bearing on both
ends of the rotor receives radial forces from the screw
compressor. Screw compressors are same as piston compressors
in the principle of the rise of the air pressure, one rotor acts as
piston and other forms as cylinder in screw compressor and
both belong to positive displacement compressors.
Seals are devices provided in all compressors and turbines.
Labyrinth (Laby) seals are characterised as controlled clearance
seals without rubbing contact with the moving parts and with
some tolerable leakage. As is most usually the case, the seal
here is stationary and the shaft is rotating. Refer the Fig -1 for
geometry and boundary condition of the analysis.
One of the earliest mathematical treatments of Laby seals was
by Egli [5] in the 1930’s where an idealised flow equation was
derived with empirically determined correction factors. This
model was the subject of study in this work against which the
numerical (CFD) model was built up.
The heat transfer coefficients output from the flow analysis
were used in the thermo-structural analysis of the housing–seal
system along with empirical thermal coefficients for cooling
water and high temperature air flows. The combined expansion
effect was observed.
NOMENCLATURE
m = Leakage rate in kg/s
A = Area in m2
P = Pressure in bar
V = Velocity in m/s
K = Index of expansion (1.4)
ρ0 = Upstram Density
α = Flow coefficient
ψn = Leakage function
γ = Carry over correction factor
β = Pressure ratio = Pn / P0
P0 = Upstream pressure
Pn = Down stream pressure
n = Number of throttling(or) number of fins
γ = Kinematic visocity of hot and cold medium, m2/sec
α h ,s - Thermal expansion coefficient of housing, m/mdegC
Rh,s - Housing and seal radius, m
Th,s,f - Temperature of housing and reference, degC
Vh,c - Velocity of hot and cold fluid, m
D - Hydraulic mean diameter, m
hh,c - Heat transfer coefficient of hot, cold fluid, W/m2K
λh,c – Thermal conductivity of hot, cold fluid, W/mK
Reh,ec - Reynolds number of hot, cold fluid
Prh,rc - Prandtl number of hot, cold fluid
Nuh,c - Nusselt number of hot, cold fluid
δrf,rc – Thermal expansion of housing and seal, mm
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF LABYRINTH SEALS
In a labyrinth seal; as the fluid flows from high pressure to low
pressure; it is forced to change directions and expand in stages.
Airflow is assumed to be compressible and each stage is
considered as a throttling. As air passes through the orifice, the
entropy remains constant, while the pressure decreases owing to
the throttling. This will cause the velocity of air to increase. The
pressure in the cavity is taken as uniform.
EGLI’S MODEL
Initially, flow is considered as the isentropic expansion of a
compressible fluid through a single ideal orifice. Later this is
extended to include more than one orifice.
Although the effects of rotation are neglected, this model
includes an experimentally determined coefficient to account
for the effects of kinetic energy carry-over in straight –through
seals. Empirical values of the carry-over coefficient as a
function of the number of throttles and the clearance to pitch
ratio are used. In addition, a flow coefficient to compensate for
the effects of friction and for the contraction of the flow through
the seal throttles is employed. Graphs yield the variation of flow
coefficient as a function of the number of throttles, seal
clearance, tooth thickness and overall pressure ratio.
MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION TO CALCULATE THE
LEAKAGE RATE THROUGH THE LABYRINTH
The final equation for flow through ‘n’ throttlings is:
m = Aαψ n γ P0 ρ 0
…..……. (1)
1 − (β )
2
Where ψ n =
n + log e (β )
…..……. (2)
2 Copyright © 2007 by ASME
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS THROUGH CFD Nu c λc
hc =
A commercial CFD code, FLUENT 6.1 was used for numerical D
analysis. After initial trials, the implicit solver and k-epsilon (2- ------ (6)
eqn) flow model were chosen to simulate the compressible,
viscous flow under steady-state conditions. The Labyrinth seal The boundary condition obtained from the above calculation is
is subjected to 3 Barg and ambeint conditions between inlet and applied in the thermal analysis and the temperature distribution
outlet respectively. Although a 3-D model was attempted, the 2- of the rotors and the average value at required locations found.
D axisymmetric case has sufficed for the course of this work.

Thermal Analysis of Housings

The mesh dependence of the solution was studied and only the
converged results presented. The CFD model was thus credibly
created to simulate results of sufficient accuracy, better than the Theoretical calculation of the thermal expansion of the housing
idealised theoretical model. at different locations is very complex due to the geometry,
loading and boundary conditions and hence the Computer
Aided Engineering assistance becomes mandatory.
Thermal expansion of Housing and Seal The equivalent 3D model was imported. 3D ELEMENTS were
Using the commercial Finite element code, ANSYS 8.1, thermal used with the free mesh option to obtain a sufficiently fine
expansion of the housing and seal are analysed. The heat Mesh. Convective heat transfer coefficients were calculated
transfer coefficients of cooling water and compressed air flow using the equations 4 & 6 and input to areas where heat transfer
are calculated for the housing as below. was known to take place. Bulk temperatures and heat transfer
coefficients of hot and cold medium were also given, refer Fig6.
Heat transfer coefficient of hot medium
The thermal expansion can be calculated from the local
The empirical relations for calculating the heat transfer temperature of the material as
coefficients are based on the twin shell heat exchanger.
Radial thermal expansion of Housing
Reynolds number δrh = α h Rh (Th − T f )
Vh D ------ (7)
Re h =
γh
Radial thermal expansion of Seal
δrs = α s Rs (Ts − T f )
Nusselt number
0.8 0.4
Nu h = 0.023 Re h Prh
------ (8)
------ (3)
Heat transfer coefficient of air The operating clearance of the seal is obtained, which is a
Nu h λ h function of thermal expansion of seal housing and seal.
hh =
D
------ (4)
RESULTS
Heat transfer coefficient of cold medium The CFD results for the pressure, density and velocity are
indicated in the Fig 2 to 4 for the basic profile-1.
Reynolds number
The effect of the various profile configurations on leakage
Vc D are analysed and compared in the table no.1.
Re c =
γc
The Fig-5 indicates the flow of the analysis performed in
Nusselt number Ansys.
0.8 0.4
Nu c = 0.023 Re c Prc
------ (5) The temperature distribution plot obtained from the heat
Heat transfer coefficient of cold medium transfer analysis of the housing is shown in Fig 6.

3 Copyright © 2007 by ASME


CONCLUSION
The advantages with CFD are that the effects of
turbulence and friction, which required an empirically
determined correction factor in the theoretical analysis, are
accounted automatically by the solver. Thus, for any specified
labyrinth seal configuration with number of throttling, geometry
and clearance, CFD can give a better solution. Also we
observed that the effect of rotation on air leakage can be
considered as negligible. Investigations for possible profiles and
their leakage effects are compared.
The optimized clearance is obtained from the thermo-
structural analysis of housing and seal based on the boundary
temperatures from heat transfer analysis. The seal is developed
(refer Fig-7) with clearance optimized from above procedure
and the test results found to correlate with the prediction.
SCOPE FOR FUTURE WORK
The combined CFD, heat transfer and thermo-structural
analysis of the entire assembly can be analysed to get better
predictions of leakage.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to Dr. Madhu Ganesh, General Manager
and Mr. Venumadhav, Senior Manager, Technology
Development, Elgi Equipments Ltd, Coimbatore, India-641005
for their approval and support during this optimisation, design,
development and testing work.
We are also thankful to all reference authors like Martin
[1], Stodola [2], Dollin and Brown [3], Gercke [4], Egli [5],
Hodkinson [6], Heffener [7], Benvenuti [8], Rao and
Narayanamurthi [9], Meyer and Lowrie [10], Ahmed kovacevic,
Nikola Stosic, Ian K. Smith [17], C. Zamfirescu, N. Nannan, M.
Marin and C. A. Infante Ferreira [19],, Takao Inoue, Tomokazu
Nakagawa, Eiji Fujita, Hisao Hamakawa [20], and Mikio
Oi,Mariko Suzuki,Natsuko Matsuura [21].
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[1] Martin,H.M.,(1908), “Labyrinth packings,”
Engineering,Vol.85,pp.35-38.
[2] Stodola, A.,(1927), “Steam and Gas Turbines,” McGraw-
Hill,Vol.1,pp.189-194.
[3] Dollin, F. and Brown,W.,(1937),”Flow of fluids through
openings in series, ” The Engineer, Vol.164,PP.223-224.
[4] Gercke, M.,(1934), “Flow through Labyrinth Packing,
”Mechanical Engineer, Vol.86, pp.678-680.
[5] Egli,A. (1935),“Leakage of steam through labyrinth seals,”
ASME Transactions, pp.115-122.
[6] Hodinson,B. (1939), “Estimation of leakage through a
Labyrinth Gland,” proceedings of the Institute of Mechanical
Engineers, Vol.141,pp.283-288.
[7] Heffener,F.E. (1960), “A General Method for correlating
Labyrinth seal Leakrate data, ”ASME Journal of Basic
Engineerings,Vol.82,pp.265-275.
[8] Rao, K.V., and Narayanamurthi,R.G., (1973), “An
Experimental study of the performance characteristics of
Labyrinth seal, “ Indian Engineering Journal,
Vol.56,pp.176-181.
[9] Benvenuti, E., (1980), ”Analytical and Experimental
Development of Labyrinth Seals for process Centrifugal
Compressor,” ASME Publication, pp.273-285.
[10] Meyer, C.A., and Lowrie, J.A., (1975), "The leakage
through Straight and Slant Labyrinths and Honey Comb Seals,"
ASME Journal of Engineering for Power,Vol.97, pp.495-502.
[11] Gordo Kirk,R.,(2005), “Applications of Computational
Fluid Dynamics Analysis for Rotating Machinery-part II:
Labyrinth Seal Analysis,” ASME Transactions,
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[12] John, D., and Anderson, J.R. (1995) “Computational Fluid
Dynamics the Basic and Applications" McGraw-Hill
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[14] Dr A Kovacevic, CFD and stress analysis in screw
compressor design, City University London, UK
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Ferreira OIL FREE TWO PHASE AMMONIA (WATER)
COMPRESSOR, FINAL REPORT, DELFT UNIVERSITY OF
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Hamakawa, Thermo-elastic analysis of Oil free screw
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April 1999. (Translated from Japanese)
4 Copyright © 2007 by ASME
[17] Mikio Oi,Mariko Suzuki,Natsuko Matsuura, Structural
Analysis and Shape Optimization in Turbocharger
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[18] Selvaraji M, Finite Element Analysis of Screw
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APPENDIX A

Fig-3 Density contour of profile-1

Fig-1 Layout of the Compressor with Labyrinth Seal

CFD RESULTS Fig-4 Velocity vector contour of profile-1

Effect of different Profiles

Leakage rates from CFD Model are arrived at using
Fluent Software. These investigations clearly revealed that flow in
a Labyrinth cavity is quite complex exhibiting at least one large re-
circulation zone, which fills the inner portion of each cavity.

Fig-2 plot of absolute pressure of profile-1

5 Copyright © 2007 by ASME

 APPENDIX B

ANALYSIS -FLOW DIAGRAM

Thermal Analysis of
Housings

Cumulative Effect:
expansion results

Structural Analysis of
Housing + seal using
thermal results

Fig-5 ANSYS -Flow Diagram

Table 1 Comparison of leakage rate between CFD and

theoretical models

Figure no.6 Boundary Condition of Housing

6 Copyright © 2007 by ASME

 Figure no.7 Thermal analysis of Bearing Housing-
Temperature Plots

Figure no.8 Optmized Seal (developed)

7 Copyright © 2007 by ASME