An experimental study on the cryogenic face seal at different inlet pressures

An experimental test system for cryogenic high-speed hydrodynamic non-contact mechanical seals is developed. Based on this system, the performances of seals under different working conditions are studied in detail in this paper. With the experimental results, the main performances of the seals (such as inlet and outlet temperatures, separated speed, face temperature, friction force, friction coefficient, leakage rate) are obtained, and the relationships of the performances with the inlet fluid pressure, the closing force and the rotational speed are discussed. The results show that the difference between the outlet and inlet temperatures decreases with increasing inlet fluid pressure. As the speed increases, the friction force varies little and remains at a constant value. The friction coefficient of the seal is approximately 0.12 and basically does not change with the speed. The leakage rate is also maintained at approximately 190 g/s. With the increase in the closing force, the friction at the seal’s face does not change greatly, which indicates that the friction at the face is always in a stable state with the seal’s closing force.