Thermal Deformation in a Mechanical Face Seal

In this paper, the mechanical and thermal deformations of the seal components are analyzed, and the role they play in the failure of face seals is discussed. To obtain the thermal deformation, the heat generated between the sealing surfaces is estimated. The temperatures fields and the deformations for both the seal and mating rings are solved numerically. While mechanical deformation is found to be small, the thermal deformation is shown to be very, significant. This thermal deformation could distort the originally flat sealing surfaces convex along a diameter with an amplitude of 2 μm for the seal ring and of 0.75 μm for the seat. The distortion is even larger when the seal runs dry. Thermal deformation promotes seal face wear at the inner diameter and must be minimized.