Thermohydrodynamic analysis on herringbone-grooved mechanical face seals with a quasi-3D model

A quasi-3D thermohydrodynamic model was introduced to analyze the seal performance of a herringbone-grooved mechanical face seal. In the model, the heat conduction equations of the seal rings and the energy equation of the lubrication film were solved simultaneously by the streamline upwind/Petrov–Galerkin finite element method. The Reynolds equation and the temperature equations were iteratively solved to obtain the liquid film pressure and the temperature distribution. A parameterized study was conducted to analyze the influence of the herringbone grooves’ geometry on the opening force, leakage rate, friction coefficient, and temperature rise. The results show that the hydrodynamic analysis overestimates the opening force because the viscous heat reduces the dynamic viscosity. The longer and narrower inner spiral groove gives the smaller leakage rate and the longer outer spiral groove with a smaller spiral angle shows the larger opening force.