ROTATING BRUSH SEAL DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE TESTING

Brush seals are widely used in various turbomachinery applications because they provide reduced leakage than labyrinth seals in a compact space. Brush seals are generally mounted on static components and their flexible bristle tips engage the rotor to form a dynamic seal. In this paper, development of a brush seal mounted on a rotor is discussed. Benefits of this enhancement to brush seal include avoiding localized rubs on the rotor, which reduces heating of a local spot and resulting rotor bow and instabilities. The bristles are angled circumferentially instead of axially and are supported by a conical backplate. Under rotation, the bristles are pushed towards the backplate by the centrifugal force. Seal configurations are designed to fit into interstage and inter-shaft locations. A modeling approach for predicting stiffness and operating stresses in these seals also is outlined. A test setup is developed to characterize the performance of rotating brush seals under engine-representative centrifugal force and pressure differentials. Presented results demonstrate that brush seal can achieve tight effective gaps and desired performance after undergoing initial wear.