Mechanical face seals - Faces deformations and applications

Articles [BM 5425] and [BM 5426] recall the wide variety of seal arrangements and industrial applications. Another series of articles studies the behavior of mechanical seals for liquids: [BM 5421] describes the study of fluid flow between aligned surfaces separated by a stationary distance (hydrostatic lubrication); the hydrodynamic or mixed lubrication regimes that appear when the faces are in motion are presented in [BM 5422] ; then the dynamic behavior and heat transfer in mechanical seals are studied in [BM 5427] .

This article looks at the deformations of the friction faces of a seal, which occur during operation and disrupt the film thickness distribution and hence the lubrication regime. The coupling between lubrication, heat dissipation and deformations is addressed in the second part of the article through the study of two examples. These illustrate the complex behavior of mechanical seals.

It will be shown that, in certain cases, approximations can be used to establish relatively simple theoretical models with analytical or semi-analytical solutions that the design engineer can implement himself. It is then possible to highlight certain essential phenomena and assess the performance of the seal with sufficient precision. These are the approaches favored in this article.

In other cases, the preceding approximations lead to...