Experimental and Computational Investigation of Flow and Thermal Behavior of a Mechanical Seal

A comparison of a computational model for flow and thermal analysis of a mechanical seal with experimental results is presented. The computational model adequately predicts the flow field in the seal chamber and temperature distribution within the stator of a mechanical seal. This model is used to determine Nusselt numbers on the wetted surfaces of the seal components. The Nusselt numbers can be used to calculate the temperature distribution on the seal face. Flow velocity and pressure, and temperature fields within the seal chamber fluid, stator and rotor are presented. The largest magnitude of the heat flux occurs on the rotor surface near the interface between the rotor and stator.