Sliding Annular Seal Structure for High-Temperature Component Deflection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing seals in gas turbine engines, such as metal w-seals and non-metallic rope seals, fail to maintain effectiveness under significant relative deflections and elevated temperatures, leading to premature failure and leakage due to deformation and limited temperature and wear resistance.
Innovation Solution
The development of annular seals with U-shaped or D-shaped cross-sections, designed to slide on ramped surfaces without substantial deflection, allowing for relative movement of components while maintaining sealing efficacy, and incorporating bridging seals for enhanced wear resistance and stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a metal w-seal is used to seal the gas path, then the seal can prevent gas leakage, but the seal deforms under significant relative deflections and becomes ineffective
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible membrane structure with a specific geometric configuration that can accommodate relative deflections between components while maintaining sealing contact. The membrane's flexibility allows it to conform to surface variations without permanent deformation, resolving the contradiction between maintaining seal effectiveness and preserving shape stability under deflection.
Solution Approach 2:
The seal design incorporates dynamic adaptability through its geometric structure, allowing the seal to adjust its configuration in response to relative movements between components. This dynamic behavior enables the seal to maintain effective contact during operation while returning to or recovering its original shape, preventing permanent deformation.
2Strength
If a higher strength material is used to improve deflection capability, then the seal can withstand greater deflections, but the temperature capability is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes composite material construction combining materials with complementary properties - one material providing high strength for deflection resistance and another material providing high temperature resistance. This composite approach allows the seal to simultaneously achieve both deflection capability and temperature capability that neither material could provide alone.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the seal are constructed from materials optimized for their specific functional requirements - areas subject to high deflection stresses use high-strength materials, while areas exposed to high temperatures use heat-resistant materials. This localized material selection resolves the contradiction by assigning different material properties to different spatial locations within the seal structure.
3Temperature
If a rope seal is used to achieve high temperature capability, then the seal can withstand elevated temperatures, but the flexibility is reduced and wear resistance becomes a problem
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a thin-film membrane structure that maintains high flexibility despite using heat-resistant materials. The thin-film configuration allows the seal to bend and conform to surface variations effectively, preserving flexibility while the material selection ensures high temperature capability, thus resolving the contradiction between these two properties.
Solution Approach 2:
The seal design changes key physical parameters including material composition, thickness, and geometric configuration to simultaneously achieve high temperature resistance and maintained flexibility. By optimizing these parameters, the seal can operate at elevated temperatures while retaining the flexibility needed for effective sealing and wear resistance.
4Adaptability or versatility
If a seal is designed to slide on a ramped surface during relative movement, then the seal can accommodate component movement, but substantial deflection occurs without proper structural support
Solution Approach 1:
The seal structure is divided into multiple segments or zones with different functional characteristics - a sliding interface portion that accommodates movement on the ramped surface and a structurally supported portion that prevents substantial deflection. This segmentation allows the seal to simultaneously achieve movement accommodation and deflection control by assigning different structural roles to different parts of the seal.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary structural element or configuration between the sliding interface and the sealed cavity that mediates the transition from movement accommodation to deflection prevention. This intermediary structure transfers loads and forces in a way that allows the seal to slide on the ramped surface while maintaining structural integrity and preventing excessive deflection.
Data Source
AI summary
A seal for sealing a space defined between first and second components, the seal having: an annular member having a substantially U-shaped cross section along at least a portion thereof, the portion configured to provide a seal interface at each of the first and second components.