Influence of the Mechanical Seals on the Dynamic Performance of Rotor–Bearing Systems

Abstract

In this paper, to consider the effects of mechanical seals, a lumped-mass model and the transfer matrix method are used to establish the equations for the dynamics performance of rotor bearing system. The general inverted iteration method is also used to solve the eigenvalue problem of these equations. To check the response of the rotor bearing system under unbalance motivation, the Gauss method is used to calculate the dynamic response of the constrained vibration. The results, based on the dynamic properties calculation of a typical mechanical spiral seal, such as stiffness coefficients and damping coefficients, exert the influence of the mechanical seal on the rotor bearing system of the high-speed machinery. Meanwhile, some structure parameters that may affect the dynamic performance and forced vibration under unbalance motivation of the rotor bearing system considering mechanical seals are analyzed in the paper. The analysis results show that the mechanical seal more or less has effects on the rotor bearing system. The mechanical seal has much more effects on the flexible rotor bearing system than on the rigid one. For instance, in a certain case, if the effects of the mechanical seal were taken into account, the system s critical speed may increase by 70 80%.