#labyrinth seal

[nsterbo]

NS Terbo - Steam Turbine Manufacturer & Service Provider

Leading manufacturer and service provider of steam turbines, turbine spare parts, refurbishment and overhaul services.

[phoebedegroot]

Self-Centering Labyrinth Seal for Turbomachinery (Patent Pending)

Fall 2012-Spring 2013 Some images/details restricted due to Intellectual Property agreement

This part design was completed for my senior design capstone project in conjunction with my honors thesis. My capstone team and I designed a seal that would passively center itself around the impeller of a centrifugal compressor and maintain cost and performance of existing labyrinth seals. Completion of the project required extensive research on turbomachinery and personal research for DfA/DfM. The design was modeled in Solidworks and analyzed using CFD in ANSYS CFX. The design was found to be successful after preliminary testing and has a patent application pending.

As an extension I fabricated a prototype of the seal in aluminum that would be tested in a compressor test rig at the host company. This machining work was done on a lathe and CNC 3-axis mill  and required custom tooling and fixturing. The final prototype met all precision tolerance specifications down to .0005".