Asymmetrical V-Spring Seal Design for Lower Interface Temperature
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Solution Overview
Problem
Prior art spring energized seals with V-shaped components face challenges in compressibility and sealing efficiency due to equal leg lengths, leading to issues like increased temperature at the sealing interface, seal lip lifting, and reduced sealing force.
Innovation Solution
The proposed seal assembly features a V-spring with unequal leg lengths, where a longer leg and a shorter leg are used to bias the flanges of a sealing element, providing a smaller sealing interface, reduced temperature, and increased sealing force by distributing biasing force more effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If a V-spring with equal leg lengths is used, then the sealing element can be biased, but the temperature at the sealing interface increases and sealing force decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The V-spring is designed with unequal leg lengths where the first leg is longer than the second leg. This asymmetry allows the longer leg to contact the outside flange and the shorter leg to contact the inside flange, creating different biasing forces on each sealing surface. This resolves the contradiction by distributing the spring force unevenly to reduce temperature at the sealing interface while maintaining adequate sealing force through the differential biasing arrangement.
2Force
If a V-spring with equal leg lengths is used, then the sealing element can be biased, but seal lip lifting occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The unequal leg lengths of the V-spring create asymmetric biasing forces that stabilize the seal lip by preventing uniform lifting. The longer leg provides greater biasing force to counteract lifting tendencies on one side while the shorter leg provides appropriate force on the other side, maintaining seal lip stability during dynamic operation.
Solution Approach 2:
Different leg lengths provide locally optimized biasing forces at different locations of the sealing element. The longer leg contacts the outside flange where greater force is needed to prevent lifting, while the shorter leg contacts the inside flange where less force is required, creating locally adapted biasing that prevents seal lip lifting.
3Force
If a V-spring with unequal leg lengths is used, then sealing force increases and temperature reduces, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The V-spring incorporates asymmetry through unequal leg lengths, which improves sealing force and reduces temperature. While this increases geometric complexity, the spring remains a single integrated component manufactured from a continuous strip, avoiding the need for multiple separate parts or complex assembly procedures, thus limiting the increase in overall device complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration results in lower operating temperatures, reduced seal lip lifting, and enhanced sealing performance during dynamic operations, with increased stiffness and sealing force due to the asymmetrical V-spring design.
Implementation Method 1
A V-spring shaped energizing component can be placed in the spring cavity... each V-body comprises a long leg and a short leg... providing a smaller sealing interface, reduced temperature, and increased sealing force by distributing biasing force more effectively
Implementation Method 2
a center channel section defining a spring cavity... A V-spring shaped energizing component can be placed in the spring cavity
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 3A~4
AI summary
A V-spring (100) comprising a plurality of V-bodies (104) each with a short leg (108) and a long leg (106), each V-body (104) having a connecting end or connecting portion (112) for each pair of long leg (106) and short leg (108) having an apex (128) that serves as a base or origin, a length of the long leg (106) extends further outwardly in an axial direction away from the base or origin, axially relative to a spring ring centerline, than a length of the short leg (108); wherein the long leg (106) extends about 5% to 45% longer in the axial direction than the short leg (108); wherein each short leg (108) has a base (118a) near or at the apex (128) having a width and a terminal end edge (118) having a width and wherein the width of the base (118a) is larger than the width of the terminal end edge (118) of the short leg (108); and wherein each long leg (106) has a base (116a) near or at the apex (128) having a width and a terminal end edge (116) having a width and wherein the width of the base (116a) is larger than the width of the terminal end edge (116) of the long leg (106).