2. Heat dissipation and transfer

The existence of friction between the faces of a mechanical seal necessarily leads to energy dissipation in the interface, resulting in a rise in the temperature of the contact and adjacent elements. These temperature variations can significantly alter the geometric appearance of the surfaces and therefore the thickness of the film, but they can also lead to vaporization of the liquid, which is generally undesirable.

The aim of this chapter is to establish tools for evaluating temperature rises between surfaces. First, we'll look at dissipation in the contact, then at heat transfer in the vicinity of the interface.

In this chapter, we assume that the thermal regime is stationary and that the configuration is axisymmetric.