Discriminative Features of Abnormities in a Spiral Groove Gas Face Seal Based on Dynamic Model Considering Contact

Abstract It is a difficult task to root the cause of the failure of a gas face seal because different causes may result in similar observations. In the work being presented, the discrimination of multiple types of abnormities in a spiral groove gas face seal is studied. A dynamic model is employed to analyze groups of cases in order to uncover the dynamic behaviors when the face contact is induced by different mixtures of abnormities, whose discriminative features when motion and contact are monitored are studied and uncovered. A circumferential-pattern-related oscillation phenomenon is discovered, which is extracted from contact information and implies the relative magnitude of the moment on stator and the rotor tilt. The experimental observation shows consistent results. It means that the grooves (or other circumferential patterns) generate useful informative features for monitoring. These results provide guidance for designing a monitored gas face seal system.