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Analytical and Experimental Investigation of Laser-

Textured Mechanical Seal Faces
a a b
I. Etsion , Y. Kligerman & G. Halperin
a
Technion , Haifa, 32000, Israel
b
Surface Technologies Ltd. , Nesher, Israel
Published online: 25 Mar 2008.

To cite this article: I. Etsion , Y. Kligerman & G. Halperin (1999) Analytical and Experimental Investigation of Laser-Textured
Mechanical Seal Faces, Tribology Transactions, 42:3, 511-516, DOI: 10.1080/10402009908982248

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 Analytical and Experimental Investigation of
Laser-Textured Mechanical Seal ~ a c e s @
I. ETSION and Y. KLIGERMAN
Technion
Haifa 32000, Israel
and
G.HALPERIN
Downloaded by [North Dakota State University] at 03:07 28 October 2014

Surface Technologies Ltd.

Nesher, Israel

An analytical model is developed to predict the relation INTRODUCTION

between the opening force and operating conditions in a mechan-
ical seal with laser textured microsurface structure in the form of
micropores. The model is valid for any desired shape of the micro-
pores. An optimization is performed for spherical shape micro-
pores evenly distributed on one of the mating rings face to maxi-
mize the opening force and fluid film st~@ess. Results of a para-
metric study are presented showing the effect of the main design
parameters on the seal performance. Some results of an experi-
mental investigation with water-lubricated seal rings are also
shown and compared with the theoretical model.
KEY WORDS
Seals; Mechanical Seals
Presented a s a Soclety of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers
paper at the ASMEISTLE Tribology Conference In
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 26-28, 1998
Final manuscrlpt approved September 10, 1998
Properly engineered seal faces seem to be the most desirable
direction for future mechanical seal development. Several ideas
have been proposed in the past in order to increase the load carry-
ing capacity and the fluid film stiffness between the seal-mating
rings. These include macrosurface patterns like face waviness,
radial taper, hydropads, lobes and various types of grooves. A
good summary of these ideas can be found in Ref. (I).
Recently, a model for mechanical seals with regular microsur-
face structure was presented (Z), showing a substantial improve-
ment in seal performance when evenly distributed hemispherical
micropores are present on one of the mating seal faces. The work
presented in (2) was followed by an experimental study (3) in
which laser-textured seal rings were tested in oil showing that the
spherical pore shape can be optimized and that an optimum pore
depth over pore diameter ratio exists that maximizes the film stiff-
ness and the PV factor at seizure inception.
Microsurface structures of other types were also suggested e.g.
microasperities (4) and various controlled porosity (5), (6). Of all

r, = outer radius of the seal

P'
= base radius of the pore
C = seal clearance R, = seal radius ratio, rjr,
h = local film thickness S~ = area density of the pores
h, = pore depth U = average circumferential velocity
H =dimensionless local film thickness, h/C x = Cartesian coordinate in the circuniferential direction
P = pressure X = dimensionless Cartesian coordinate, x/r,
P. = ambient pressure z = Cartesian coordinate in the radial direction
Pi. = pressure at the inner radius of the seal Z = dimensionless Cartesian coordinate, zlr,
P,. = pressure at the outer radius of the seal AP = dimensionless pressure differential, (p--p,)/p,
P = dimensionless pressure, plp, A = seal parameter, 6 p ~ r ~ p , ~ 2
r, = side of imaginary square cell P = dynamic viscosity
ri = inner radius of the seal
 I. ETSION,
Y. KLIGERMAN
and G. HALPERIN
Rotating Ring
without Laser
Treatment
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I Stationary Ring with
! Laser Treatment
t
LOAD
Fig. 1-Seal model and mode of operation.
tlic pr:~cticnl macro and microsurface patterns however, it seems
that the Inscr-tcxtured seal faces described in (3) offer the most
promising dcsign. This is because the texturing is done on the con-
vcntionnl scaling dam itself and no extra area is required to
accom~nodntelifting structures as in the case of grooves, lobes or
hytlropnds. Also, thc lascr is extremely fast, clean to the environ-
Inclic atid provides excellent control of the shape and size of the
ports which allows realization of optimum designs. Indeed, laser
tcchliology is starting to gain some attention in the mechanical
scal commu~iityas is evidcnt from the proceedings of the 1997
Intcrnatiolial Fluid Scaling Conference where three laser related
papcrs arc prcsent (3),(7),(8).
Unscd on the findings in Rcf. (3)a thorough investigation was
~~crfoniicd, both annlytically and experimentally, to study the var-
ious pnrnmctcrs that uITcct the performance of laser-textured seal
I'i~ccs.l'hc model of Ref. (2) was substantially improved to include
more rcnlistic boundary and cavitation conditions and to allow the
iuialysis of various pore shapes, other then hemispherical. The test
rig dcscribcd in Ref. (3)was used to test silicon carbide laser-tex-
turccl rings against carbon rings in water and the experimental
rcsults wcrc used to evaluate the theoretical model. In addition a
I'i~ll-scnlcwntcr pump was installed in the laboratory and its tung-
stcn carbide scal rings were examined after several 100-hour runs
with and without thc laser-textured faces to test the feasibility of
tlic coliccpt under more realistic operating conditions.
Tlic prcsent paper describes the details of the above research
cl'fort ;uid presents some of the theoretical and experimental
rcsults. Although not very extensive, due to their preliminary
naturc, thc rcsults obtained so far are very encouraging and hope-
fully will trigger more interest in this novel technology for the
scals industry.
ANALYTICAL MODEL
The mechanical seal considered in this paper is represented by
two non-contacting rings rotating relative to each other (Fig. 1).
The regular network of micropores is installed on one of the sur-
faces. The geometrical model of the laser textured surface is dis-
played in Figs. 2 and 3. Each pore is modeled by an axisymmetric
segment with a base radius r,, and depth h,. The pores are distrib-
uted uniformly over one of the annular surfaces with an area den-
sity s,. Each pore is located in the center of an imaginary square
cell of sides 2r, x 2r1,see Fig. 2(c), where:
According to the basic assumptions accepted in this work the
seal is fully liquid-filled, with parallel faces separated by a con-
stant film thickness, and the sealed fluid is viscous (Newtonian)
with a constant viscosity p. The ratio Ri between the inner and
outer radii, ri and r,, of the seal rings under consideration is larger
than 0.7. This allows one to neglect curvature effects and conse-
quently, a circular sector containing one pores column in the radi-
al direction, see Figs. 2(a) and (b), is assumed to be rectangular,
subjected in the lateral x direction to a relative sliding velocity U,
corresponding to the tangential velocity at the mean radius of the
seal.
The two-dimensional, steady-state form of the Reynolds equa-
tion for an incompressible Newtonian fluid in a laminar flow is
given by
where z and x are the radial and circumferential directions
Cartesian coordinates, respectively, and h is the local film thick-
ness at a specific point of the seal. In order to reduce Eq. [2] to
nondimensional form the nondimensional Cartesian coordinates X
and Z, nondimensional local film thickness H and nondimension-
al pressure P are defined as:
where p, is the ambient pressure and C is the seal clearance. After
substitution of Eqs. [3] into Eq. [2] the Reynolds equation in its
nondimensional form becomes:
where the nondimensional seal parameter A is given as follows
By specifying the film thickness distribution H(x, z), the
nondimensional seal parameter A, and the relevant boundary con-
ditions, Eq. [4] can be solved, for the pressure distribution in the
seal film. Integrating the pressure over the seal area gives the
opening force acting in the axial direction to prevent contact
between the rings for reliable operation of the mechanical seal.
Since the micropores are evenly distributed it is assumed that
the pressure distribution is periodic in the circumferential direc-
 Analytical and Experimental Investigation of Laser-Textured Mechanical Seal Faces
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Flg. 2--Geometry of seal mlcrosurface structure.
(a) pore distribution on a seal ring
(b) radial pores column wlth its coordinate system and
boundary conditions
(c) lndlvldual cell wlth a slngle pore
tion with a period equal to the imaginary square cell size 2 rI .
Because of this it is sufficient to consider only one radial pores
column as shown in Fig. 2(b), with the following boundary con-
ditions:
P(+,z = q ) = P;, d + , z = a )=
PO., [61
Nondimensional values of the pressure at the two edges of one
pores column are obtained by normalization according to Eq. [3].
In the circumferential direction, periodicity condition of the pres-
sure is applied so that
The boundary conditions in nondimensional form are given as
follows
The boundary conditions at the inner and outer radii of the seal
Eq. [6] and the periodicity condition Eq. [7] should be comple-
mented by the conditions at the boundaries of possible cavitation
regions associated with each individual pore. As was explained in
Ref. ( 2 ) these cavitation regions are responsible for the asymmet-
ric hydrodynamic pressure distribution and hence, are the only
source for load carrying capacity of cavitating pores. In the pres-
ent work the more accurate Reynolds boundary condition, also
Fig. *Film thickness and geometry of pores In a textured seal.
called the Swift Stieber condition, (see, for example, Ref. (9)) is
assumed as opposed to the half-Sommerfeld condition that was
used in Ref. (2). The Reynolds condition implies that, on the cav-
itation boundary, the pressure gradient with respect to the direc-
tion normal to the boundary is zero and the pressure inside the
cavitation region is retained constant close to zero. More elabo-
rate boundary conditions could be used, e.g., JFO (10) or Elrod
(111, which may handle the reformation boundary more accuratc-
ly, but simplicity was preferred in the present work.
The Reynolds Equation, Eq. [4], with its appropriate boundary
conditions was solved by a finite difference method using a
nonuniform grid over the radial pores column, shown in Fig. 2(b),
where a dense grid is applied within the pore areas. Numerical
tests show that, for pore density values S, in the range between 10
percent to 50 percent, the best accuracy of pressure calculation is
obtained when the grid applied in the area of the pores is about
five times denser than that outside of the pores.
'The finite difference method leads to a set of linear algebraic
equations for the nodal values of the pressure which should be
solved with the boundary conditions at the inner and outer radii of
the seal Eq. [6] and the periodicity condition Eq. [7]. This linear
equation set may be solved by various standard methods. The suc-
cessive over-relaxation Gauss-Seidel iterative method, Ref. (12),
was used in this work. It requires an initial approximation of the
solution and the linear hydrostatic pressure distribution may be
used for this purpose if a more precise solution is unknown.
Although the iteration algorithm of Gauss-Seidel is not always the
most effective one, this method is convenient for the determina-
tion of the previously unknown cavitation regions.
RESULTS
The following dimensionless parameters of the problem were
considered for the analytical investigation:
1. Area density of the pores, S,
2. Seal radius ratio, Ri=ri,/r,,,
3. Seal parameter, A = ~ ~ U ~ , , / ~ , C ~
4. Dimensionless pressure differential, AP=(p,,-p,,)/p,
5. Pore depth over pore diameter ratio, h42rp
6. Dimensionless average pressure, Pa,, defined as the opening
force divided by the sealing dam area.
A large number of numerical simulations showed that large
variations of the pore density, S,, in the range from 10 percent to

001 1 I 1 l . .
OW 001 010 01s om 025 030 025
I k p t h o r r v Uinmelcr Rntio. Il,Ilr,
Fig. 4--Dlmensioniess average pressure, P.., vs. depth over diameter
40 pcrccnt and of the radius ratio, R,, in the range from 0.7 to 0.9,
liovc littlc effcct on the average pressure, P,,, causing changes of
Downloaded by [North Dakota State University] at 03:07 28 October 2014
lcss thiui I0 percent in its value. Therefore, typical values of these
two paramctcrs being R,=0.8 and S, = 20 percent were selected to
rcprcscnt thcir full range.
'I'lic cll'cct of thc pore depth over pore diameter ratio on the
tlinicnsionlcss avcrage pressure, P,,, is presented in Fig. 4 for the
cnsc of zcro prcssurc differential, AP=O, and several values of the
scal pnri~~nctcr A. As would be expected, increasing the seal
piuomctcr (corrcsponding to an increase of the velocity U or the
viscosity p) Ic:~ds to more efficient hydrodynamic effect of the
microporcs. An ititcresting result is the existence of an optimum
value for the pore depth, at any given pore diameter, to maximize
tlic avcragc prcssurc, and, hence, the opening force.The optimal
porc dcpth ovcr porc diameter ratio is less than 0.05 for seal
1)nrumctcr vnlucs A>]. A depth over diameter ratio of 0.5 corre-
sponds to hemispherical pores that were treated in Ref. (2). Figure
4 clc;~rlyshows the poorer performance of a seal with hemispher-
ical porcs when thc average pressure is much lower than its max-
itiiulii valuc, especially for cases with high value of the seal
paramctcr A. Moreover, with the hemispherical pores the effect of
A on P,,, is ncgligible compared to the case of lower depth over
diomctcr ratios whcrc an increase in A results in a substantial
incrcasc in P,,,. When everything else is fixed a reduction of the
scal clcnrance is represented by an increase in the value of A.
Hcncc, for lic~nisphcricalpores the opening force is almost insen-
sitivc to chongcs in the seal clearance, in contrast to high sensitiv-
ity that fitrlhcr increases as the optimum pore depth is approached.
This ~iicansthat the fluid film stiffness, which is very important
for scol stability, can be significantly improved by a proper design
of thc porcs gcoliictry.
Figurc 5 shows the effect of the pressure differential across the
scaling tlatii on the performance of the textured seal. Again, as
woultl bc cxpcctcd, an increase in AP eliminates the cavitation
ovcr porcs that are affected by increasing hydrostatic pressure
and, lic~icc,reduccs the efficiency of the hydrodynamic effect of
tlic porcs. Thc results presented in Fig. 5 were obtained for
A= 1000 ~uidfor two values of the pore depth over diameter ratio.
'I'hc line P,, = AP12 corresponds to the case of a nontextured con-
vc~itionalscal with a linear hydrostatic pressure drop across the
sci~lingdam. For low values of the pressure differential AP the
hydrostatic pressure in the seal is also low and a considerable gain
in P,, ciin be obtilincd due to efficient hydrodynamic effect. As the
I. ETSION,
Y. KLIGERMAN
and G . HALPERIN
~ I I I
040 04s 09
Fig. 5--Dimensionless average pressure, P, vs. dimensionless pres-
sure differential, AP, for various pore depth over diameter ratio
values.
pressure differential AP increases the cavitation induced hydrody-
namic effect gradually vanishes and the average pressure in the
seal approaches the case of no pores where P,,=AP/2. This effect
is more pronounced with pores shape of greater deviation from the
optimum. It is interesting to note that the value of P,, remains
almost constant as AP increases in the range of 0 < AP < 2P,,I,.
Beyond this range the difference between P,, and APJ2 becomes
negligibly small. Hence, as a first approximation for engineering
purposes, the average pressure in the seal could be evaluated as
that corresponding to AP=O in the range of 0 < AP <2P,,I,, and as
the hydrostatic pressure AP/2 for AP > 2P,I,.
Figure 6 presents the combined effect of the seal parameter A
and the pressure differential AP on the dimensionless average
pressure Pa,. In the case of AP=O the average pressure in the seal
grows rapidly with A at low values of A. When the pressure dif-
ferential &O, the hydrostatic pressure greatly suppresses the
hydrodynamic effect at low A values and the pores become inef-
fective. Under this condition the average pressure remains con-
stant and equal to AP / 2 (no pores case) up to a A value above
which the hydrodynamic effect due to the presence of the pores
starts to be significant again. Notice that as A keeps increasing the
average pressure in the seal, corresponding to the high values of
the pressure differential AP, approaches that corresponding to
AP=O. This is because at very high A values the hydrodynamic
effect becomes much larger than the hydrostatic one and the later
becomes unimportant.
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION
A special test rig was used to simulate a mechanical seal and
to measure the effect of the laser texturing on the seal's perform-
ance. A description of the test rig is provided in Ref. (3), and a
schematic description of the rings speciman and mode of opera-
tion is shown in Fig. 1. An application of sealing water was select-
ed to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept even with poor
lubricant with relatively low viscosity. The inner and outer radii of
the lower S i c ring and the upper Carbon ring were 14 mm and
19.75 mm, respectively. The upper ring can be rotated at different
speeds from 300 to 5000 rpm while the lower ring is loaded axi-
ally against it. Water is supplied by gravity to the center of the
lower ring and lubricates the interface between the two rings. The
friction force between the mating rings and the temperature of the
water exiting the interface at the outer radius can be measured to
 Analytical and Experimental Investigation of Laser-Textured Mechanical Seal Faces
Dimrnrionlus Scnl Parameter, A
Fig. GDimensionless average pressure, P, vs. dimensionless seal
parameter, A, for various pressure differential values.
provide the shear stress in the water film and its viscosity. The
Downloaded by [North Dakota State University] at 03:07 28 October 2014
clearance, C, between the mating rings was estimated from the
relation
r=paulay=pulc PI
where r, the shear stress, is the measured friction force between
the rings divided by the sealing dam area and U is the average tan-
gential velocity of the upper ring. The average pressure Pa, is
obtained by dividing the axial load by the seal dam area. This axial
load can be increased gradually to cover a range of average pres-
sure values.
Figure 7 shows the results of a test performed, at 4000 rpm and
AP=O, with a laser-textured S i c ring having pores with a diameter
of 95 pm and a depth of 6 pm, evenly distributed with an area den-
sity S, = 20 percent. Also shown in Fig. 7 are the theoretical
results that were obtained by using the estimated experimental
values of the clearance C to calculate the corresponding values of
the seal parameter A. As can be seen there is a good correlation
between theory and experiment showing the increase in the aver-
age gauge pressure and, hence, the opening force with decreasing
seal clearance. Note that the theory under estimates the experi-
mental average pressure. The correlation could be somewhat
improved by using more elaborate boundary conditions for the
Reynolds Equation, Eq. [4]. The results also demonstrate the
effectiveness of the pores in providing a very high fluid film stiff-
ness as the clearance C keeps decreasing. Similar behavior was
reported in Ref. (3)for oil lubricated steel rings. Moreover, in Ref.
(3) the existence of an optimum value for the pore depth over
diameter ratio was also demonstrated experimentally in agreement
with the current theoretical findings.
Following the successful experiments on the test rig an actual
water pump was installed in the laboratory to allow tests with
actual seals. The pump was circulating water from and into a 200
liter container and its discharge pressure could be adjusted by a
valve on the pump outlet. The seal was a single spring type with
WC mating rings sealing a 16 mm shaft diameter at 3000 rpm. The
pressure differential across the seal was 0.17 MPa. Three original
seals with no pores and three laser-textured seals with 25 percent
pore density, about 100 pm pore diameter, and 5 pm, 8 pm and 10
pm pore depth were tested for 100-hour run period each. At the
end of each run period the seals were disassembled and their faces
examined visually under the microscope. All three original seals
Fig. 74omparison between experimental and theoretical results of
pressure vs. clearance.
with no pores exhibited appreciable wear marks and material
transfer on their faces while the faces of all three textured seals
appeared, as they were new.
In November 1997 a textured mechanical seal was installed in
a pump operating at a petro-chemical industrial company. The seal
mating rings were WC and carbon, sealing a 62.5 mm shaft diam-
eter at 2955 rpm. The pumped fluid was a mixture of
Xylen+C,+C,, at working temperature of 266'-32O0C, discharge
pressure of 1.27 MPa, and a pressure differential of 0.62 MPa. The
laser-textured WC ring contained pores with 25 percent area den-
sity, 100 pm diameter and 8 pm depth. Following successful
operation during three months and over 2000 hours two addition-
al textured seals were installed in May 1998 by the same compa-
ny, in two pumps, one for light hydrocarbon, the other for
Toluene. So far (October 1998), the seals are functioning satisfac-
torily.
CONCLUSION
A theoretical model was developed to investigate the perform-
ance of laser-textured mechanical seals. Spherical shape pores
were analyzed and the average fluid film pressure was calculated
as a function of the main design and operating parameters. It was
found that the area density of the pores and the radius ratio of the
seal have very little effect on the average pressure. On the other
hand, the effect of the pores depth over diameter ratio is very sig-
nificant. An optimum value of this parameter can be found, for
any given value of the seal parameter that maximizes the average
pressure and the fluid film stiffness. In this regard the hemispher-
ical pore shape was shown to be the worst choice for textured
faces.
The analysis showed that the efficiency of the pores strongly
depend on the relation between hydrodynamic effects due to
speed, viscosity and seal clearance, and hydrostatic effects due to
pressure differential across the sealing dam. If the hydrostatic
effects suppress the hydrodynamic ones so that cavitation is either
completely eliminated or restricted to a small portion of the pores,
then the effect of the pores vanishes and the seal performs like a
conventional seal with no pores. If on the other hand, the hydro-
static effects arc much smaller than the hydrodynamic ones, then
a very significant improvement in seal performance can be
obtained with textured seals as compared to conventional untex-
 I. ETSION,
Y. KLIGERMANand G.HALPERIN

tured ones.
The theoretical investigation was complemented by test rig
cxperiments as well as by tests on a water pump in the laboratory
and on several pumps in the field. Good quantitative correlation
was found between the theoretical model and the test rig experi-
mental results. The water pumps seal showed improved perform-
:incc with textured faces as compared to original untextured ones.
The field test is running satisfactorily with textured seals.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Permission by Surface Technologies Ltd. to publish the results
of this work and the help of Mr. Y.Srur and Mr. A. Ronen in tex-
turing the seal rings and running the experiments is gratefully
acknowledged. The work was partially supported by the Israel
Commerce and Industry Ministry and by the Fund for the
Downloaded by [North Dakota State University] at 03:07 28 October 2014
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