Additive Manufactured Seal Rotor With Internal Cooling Cavities
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional rotors in high temperature/high speed environments face significant challenges in maintaining rotor face flatness due to clamping-induced distortions, inertial forces, pressure differences, and thermal loads, which are difficult to tune without introducing internal stress or adding mass.
Innovation Solution
An additive manufactured dynamic seal rotor with internal features such as circumferential grooves and annular cavities, along with an annular cooling fin, is designed to reduce distortions and enhance cooling efficiency, allowing for the tuning of rotor face coning and dynamic active cooling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional manufacturing methods are used to produce rotors with internal cooling features, then manufacturing complexity and cost increase, but rotor face flatness and cooling efficiency are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The rotor incorporates internal porous structures and annular cavities that allow coolant flow while maintaining rotor face flatness. The porous material distribution is optimized to provide cooling channels without compromising the external geometry or sealing surface flatness, resolving the contradiction between cooling efficiency and manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from conventional external cooling methods to internal three-dimensional cooling structures. By adding cooling features in the radial and axial dimensions within the rotor body, the design achieves efficient heat dissipation without affecting the rotor face flatness in the primary sealing dimension.
2Weight of moving object
If mass reduction is achieved through additive manufacturing, then cooling efficiency and distortion control improve, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The rotor is divided into multiple functional zones with varying material densities and cooling feature distributions. Additive manufacturing enables these segmented structures to be produced as integrated components, reducing overall mass while managing manufacturing complexity through digital design rather than mechanical assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention utilizes composite material structures with varying properties distributed throughout the rotor. Additive manufacturing allows different materials or material densities to be placed in specific regions, optimizing both weight reduction and structural functionality while managing the complexity through material science rather than mechanical design.
3Force
If clamping force is increased to resist torque loads, then torque resistance improves, but rotor face distortion increases
Solution Approach 1:
The rotor design implements local quality variations in the form of strategically placed cooling channels and structural reinforcements at critical stress zones. This allows the rotor to withstand high clamping forces and torque loads without uniform distortion, as the local structural properties are optimized to resist deformation where it would most affect face flatness.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes physical parameters of the rotor material and structure through additive manufacturing, including material composition, density distribution, and internal geometry. These parameter changes enable the rotor to maintain face flatness under high clamping forces by altering the stress distribution and thermal characteristics of the material.
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
The solution significantly reduces mechanical and thermal distortions, achieving 50-70% mass reduction while improving cooling efficiency and maintaining rotor face flatness within operational tolerances, thereby enhancing the reliability and performance of dynamic seals in harsh environments.
Implementation Method 1
The radial web can define a fluid channel for providing fluid communication between the first annular cavity of the outer ring and the second annular cavity of the inner ring
Implementation Method 2
heating of the rotor from the sealing ring can additionally contribute to undesirable rotor face distortion
Data Source
AI summary
An additive manufactured rotor for a seal assembly is provided. The rotor surrounds a central axis and extends along the central axis from a first axial end to an opposite second axial end. The rotor is rotatable about an axis of rotation that is co-axial with the central axis. The rotor can include an outer ring and an inner ring that is connected to the outer ring by a radial web. The outer ring has a rotor face for providing a sealing surface at the first axial end. The outer ring can define a first annular cavity and the inner ring can define a second annular cavity that is radially separated from the first annular cavity. The radial web can define a fluid channel for providing fluid communication between the first annular cavity of the outer ring and the second annular cavity of the inner ring.