Hydrodynamic effects of shaft surface finish on lip seal operation

摘要

It is well known that shaft surface finish can significantly affect the performance of a lip seal, even though the shaft roughness, after run-in, is much smaller than the lip roughness. In the present research, a numerical model demonstrates that small fluctuations on the shaft surface can produce large hydrodynamic effects in the sealing zone due to the non-linearity of the Reynolds equation. The effects of shaft surface profile, roughness height, roughness wavelength, and lead angle on load support, reverse pumping rate and cavitation area are examined.