RESEARCH ON THE TRIBOLOGICAL PERFORMACNE OF GROOVED TEXTURED END SEALS BASED ON GUIDE-AGGREGATION EFFECT

Surface texture design is an effective way to achieve small leakage, long life and highly reliable operation of mechanical end seals. To investigate the characteristics of the interface film of guide groove texture, through the design and preparation of semi-circular, herringbone and E-shaped guide groove textures, experiments and theoretical research under high-speed operation conditions were carried out, the influence of different guide groove textures on the tribological properties of end face seals was explored. The results show that the existence of the guide groove can effectively improve the bearing capacity of the interface film and improve the tribological performance. In numerical calculations, the results show that the frictional performances of face seals varied with the configuration of guide groove. The herringbone textures and E-type ones show an obvious guide-aggregation effect. When the lubricant in E-type texture after being guide-aggregation through the groove, the pressure accumulates at the textured tail barrier, and fluid in the face seal clearance cannot escape from the guide groove boundary. As a result， the low energy loss in system, and an optimal liquid film bearing capacity achieves. Under different depths, the existence of guide groove promotes the hydrodynamic pressure. With the increase in depth, the bearing capacity of the liquid film increases first and then decreases. For the E-shape texture, the optimum bearing capacity of liquid film <italic>P</italic>_av=0.527 5 MPa is obtained at <italic>h</italic>₁=10 μm. The bearing capacity of fluid film of E-shape texture has a 51.2% increase in comparison to the common grooved texture, the value of frictional torque has a 53.5% decrease. The analysis show that, the configuration of guide groove results in an accumulation of lubricant on the top of texture, which enhances the pressure convergence, thereby improving the bearing capacity of the lubricating fluid film and reducing friction（‘guide⁃aggregation effect’）. The geometric parameters of the guide groove have a significant impact on the fluid dynamic pressure in the end face sealing pair， which will influence the tribological performances of face seal. The research result provides theoretical support for the design of non-contact end face seal material surface texture in future.