International Journal of Refrigeration 125 (2021) 104–112

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Refrigeration

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrefrig

Leakage and friction characteristics at sliding surface of tip seal in

scroll compressors
Mitsuhiro Fukuta a,∗, Takeru Sotani b, Masaaki Motozawa a
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan
b
Graduate School of Engineering, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A tip seal is applied to prevent a radial leakage at a tip of scroll wrap in scroll compressors. When the tip
Received 15 March 2020 seal is pressed hard against a base plate of the scroll, the radial leakage will decrease, while friction at the
Revised 19 December 2020
tip seal will increase. There is a trade-off between the leakage and the friction. It is needed to clarify the
Accepted 16 January 2021
relationship between the leakage and the friction at the tip seal to optimize a scroll compressor design.
Available online 21 January 2021
In this study, a test apparatus which could evaluate the leakage and the friction at sliding surface of the
Keywords: tip seal simultaneously was developed. The influence of several parameters, such as upstream pressure,
Scroll compressor length and width of the tip seal, oil supply rate, rotational speed and oil viscosity, on the seal effect
Tip seal and the friction was examined with the test apparatus, and the influences of these parameters were
Leakage generalized.
Friction
Lubricating condition © 2021 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.

Caractéristiques de fuite et de friction au niveau de la surface de glissement du

joint d’étanchéité dans les compresseurs à spirale

Mots clés: Compresseur à spirale; Joint d’étanchéité; Fuite; Friction; Condition de lubrification

Introduction
Scroll compressors are widely used as refrigerant compres-
sors as well as air compressors, helium compressors and vacuum
pumps. There are two leakage paths in a compression chamber
formed by a fixed scroll and an orbiting scroll. One is the leakage
paths at a radial clearance between the wraps of fixed and orbit-
ing scroll. The leakage through the radial clearance is suppressed
by pressing the orbiting scroll radially against the fixed scroll by
a mechanism such as a compliance mechanism. The other leakage
path is an axial clearance between a tip of the scroll wrap and a
base plate. A tip seal is often used to prevent the leakage through
the axial clearance. Oil inside the compression chamber has the
sealing effect and reduces the leakage through the clearances.
Since seal length of the axial clearance is longer than that of the
radial clearance, the influence of the leakage across the tip seal on
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: fukuta.mitsuhiro@shizuoka.ac.jp (M. Fukuta).
the compressor performance is large and there are many studies
on the leakage characteristics at the tip seal. Inaba et al. (1986) ex-
amined the leakage through three different flow paths around the
tip seal, i.e. a radial leakage across the tip seal, a tangential leak-
age through a back clearance behind the tip seal in a seal groove
and the tangential leakage through a clearance between the wrap
and base plate. Ancel et al. (20 0 0) investigated the behavior of the
tip seals of a multi-blade type and a monobloc type by measuring
pressure on the tip seal in the seal groove. Youn et al. (20 0 0) stud-
ied the leakage at the tip seal in scroll compressors by a model
compressor using compressor elements under an actual operat-
ing condition, and a contact clearance between the tip seal and
the base plate was theoretically analyzed. Lee et al. (2002) dis-
cussed flow models to estimate the leakage across the tip seal
and measured tip seal behavior by a laser displacement sensor.
Adachi et al. (2012) showed the leakage characteristics at a small
clearance with solid contact which modeled the axial clearance be-
tween the tip of scroll wrap and the base plate in the scroll com-
pressor. Fukuta et al. (2014) clarified that when an angle of outer

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2021.01.016
0140-7007/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
M. Fukuta, T. Sotani and M. Motozawa
Nomenclature
D Outer diameter of tip seal [m]
Fc Contact force [N]
Ff Frictional force [N]
FPb Pressure force induced by pressure difference be-
tween back and sliding surface of tip seal [N]
Fv Vertical load [N]
Fx Frictional force on x axis [N]
Fy Frictional force on y axis [N]
G Mass flow rate of gas [kg s−1 ]
h Apparent clearance [m]
L Length of tip seal [m]
P Upstream gauge pressure [Pa]
S Sommerfeld number [-]
V Sliding speed at tip seal [m s−1 ]
W Width of tip seal [m]
η Viscosity of oil [Pa s]
ν gas Kinematic viscosity of gas [m2 s−1 ]
wall of the tip seal groove was slightly larger than 90°, the seal
effect of the tip seal was assured since the tip seal was pressed
against the outside of the seal groove by pressure difference be-
tween both sides of the tip seal. Kitamura et al. (2016) analyzed
the tangential leakage along the tip seal and the radial leakage
through the clearance between the tip seal and the base plate. It
was found that the radial leakage was much larger than the tan-
gential leakage along the tip seal. Kitamura et al. (2018) examined
the influence of oil supply on the sealing effect with changing a
pressing force of the tip seal against the base plate.
When the tip seal is pressed hard against the base plate of the
scroll, the leakage across the tip seal will decrease, while friction at
the tip seal will increase. When the tip seal is conversely pressed
softly against the base plate of the scroll, the friction at the tip
seal will decrease, while the gas leakage at the tip seal will in-
crease. There is, therefore, a trade-off between the leakage and the
friction at the tip seal, and there are many parameters regarding
the trade-off such as pressure difference, rotational speed, surface
roughness, oil supply, oil viscosity and so on. In our previous study
(Fukuta et al., 2014, Kitamura et al., 2018), the trade-off between
the leakage and the friction was examined by a test apparatus
which could measure the leakage and the friction at the tip seal si-
multaneously. However, the frictional force was measured by twist
angle of a torsion spring and a measurement accuracy of the fric-
tional force by the test apparatus was not sufficient. In this study,
a test apparatus which could evaluate the gas leakage and the fric-
tional force simultaneously with high accuracy was developed. The
influences of upstream pressure, length and width of the tip seal,
oil supply rate, rotational speed and oil viscosity on the gas leakage
and the friction at the tip seal were examined by the new appara-
tus.
Experimental apparatus
Figure 1 shows a cross-sectional view of the experimental ap-
paratus which can evaluate the gas leakage across the tip seal
and the frictional force at the sliding surface of the tip seal si-
multaneously. A tip seal used in this study was made of PEEK
(polyetheretherketone) resin and had ring shape. Back of the tip
seal was adhered to an attachment in order to focus only on the
gas leakage at sliding surface of the tip seal. A base plate was
mounted on an orbiting plate which reproduced an orbiting mo-
tion by utilizing an orbiting mechanism of a scroll compressor for
automotive air conditioners. A crank shaft was driven by an in-
105
International Journal of Refrigeration 125 (2021) 104–112
verter controlled induction motor. Vertical force on the tip seal was
applied by a cantilever through a linear rod and a center pin so
that the tip seal contacts parallelly and uniformly with the base
plate. The vertical force to the tip seal was measured by a load cell
mounted between the linear rod and the cantilever. The contact
force on the tip seal was obtained by subtracting a pressure force
acting inside the tip seal from the vertical force measured by the
load cell. Working fluids were nitrogen gas and low viscosity re-
frigeration oil (10 mm2 s−1 at 40°C). The nitrogen gas was supplied
from a gas cylinder into the tip seal, and outside of the tip seal was
open to the atmosphere. The gas pressure was adjusted by a regu-
lator and measured by a strain gauge type pressure sensor. The gas
leakage at the tip seal was measured by a thermal flowmeter. The
oil was supplied by a syringe pump which could deliver minute
flow into the tip seal. The gas and the oil were supplied into the
tip seal through PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) tubes which were
flexible and sufficiently long so that there was no influence of the
tube connection on the measurement of frictional force at the tip
seal. The oil was uniformly spread on the base plate by a spreader,
which was a circular plate and moved freely inside the tip seal by
the orbiting motion. Oil temperature was monitored by a thermo-
couple at outside of the tip seal.
Figure 2 explains the frictional force measurement method. The
attachment was held in an attachment holder to replace the at-
tachment easily. The frictional force acting on the tip seal was di-
rectly measured by load cells attached on the sides of the attach-
ment holder. The attachment holder was sandwiched by a bolt and
a micrometer head with the load cells in both x- and y-direction.
The bolt and the micrometer head were used to adjust the position
of the tip seal at a center and preload of the load cells. Three load
cells were arranged in the y-direction to confirm whether the mo-
ment around z-axis was zero. A linear guide was inserted between
the attachment holder and the load cell to eliminate the influence
of tangential friction between them so that only normal force by
the friction was detected by the load cells. Since the load to the
tip seal in z-direction was applied through the center pin, the ver-
tical load did not affect the measurement of the frictional force.
The frictional force in one direction was obtained by taking a dif-
ference between forces measured by the load cells on both sides.
The accuracies of each sensor are summarized in Table 1.
The base plate had the orbiting motion and the direction of
the frictional force acting on the tip seal rotated. Therefore, the
frictional forces in x- and y-direction had sinusoidal change with
phase difference of 90° (Sotani et al., 2019). The frictional force, Ff ,
between the tip seal and the base plate was calculated by Eq. (1).

Ff = Fx2 + Fy2 (1)
Where, Fx and Fy are the loads in the x- and y-direction, respec-
tively. The frictional force was time-averaged in a period of about
10 seconds.
Experimental parameters in this study are listed in Table 2.
The standard experimental condition was as follows; the upstream
pressure was 0.3 MPa, outer diameter of the tip seal was 34.6
mm, width of the tip seal was 1.9 mm, oil supply rate was 0.1
cm3 min−1 , rotational speed was 375 rpm, and kinematic viscos-
ity of oil was 10 mm2 s−1 at 40°C. These conditions are shown
with underline in Table 2. Surface roughness (Ra) of tip seals and
base plate were about 0.3μm and 0.5 μm respectively. The surface
roughness of tip seal and base plate is summarized in Table 3. The
Sommerfeld number was defined by Eq. (2) for the lubricating con-
dition with a line contact. (Japanese Society of Tribologists, 1975)
S = ηVL/Fc (2)
M. Fukuta, T. Sotani and M. Motozawa International Journal of Refrigeration 125 (2021) 104–112

Fig. 1. Sectional view of experimental apparatus.

Fig. 2. Mechanism of frictional force measurement.

Table 1
Measurement accuracies.

Type Measuring range Accuracy

Load cell (z axis)
Load cell (x axis, y axis)
Flow meter (104 cm3 min−1 )
Flow meter (103 cm3 min−1 )
Flow meter (102 cm3 min−1 )
Pressure gauge
Syringe pump
Thermocouple
Strain gauge type 0~5 kN 0.05 %RO or less
0~50 N 0.3 %RO or less
Thermal type 300~104 cm3 min−1 (std) ±0.5 %F.S. or less
30~103 cm3 min−1 (std)
0~102 cm3 min−1 (std) ±1 %F.S. or less
Strain gauge type -0.1 ~ 1 MPa gauge ±1.0 %F.S. or less
0.052 cm3 h−1 ~ 53.8 cm3 min−1 ±0.35%
T type -200~350 °C ±1.0°C

106
M. Fukuta, T. Sotani and M. Motozawa International Journal of Refrigeration 125 (2021) 104–112

Table 2
Experimental parameters Conditions with underline are standard conditions.

Upstream pressure Outer Diameter of the tip Width of the tip seal
[MPa gauge] seal [mm]
[mm]
0.3, 0.5, 0.7 21.6, 27.6, 34.6 1.2, 1.9, 2.9

Oil supply rate Rotational speed Kinematic viscosity of oil

[cm3 min−1 ] [min−1 ] [mm2 s−1 @ 40°C]
0.01, 0.1, 1 150, 375, 600 10, 100

Table 3
Surface roughness.

Material D: diameter, W: width Surface

[mm] roughness
[μm]
Tip seal PEEK D: 34.6, W: 1.2 0.349
D: 34.6, W: 1.9 0.371
D: 34.6, W: 2.9 0.390
D: 21.6, W: 1.9 0.362
D: 27.6, W: 1.9 0.377
Base plate Duralumin - 0.531

Where, η is the viscosity of the oil, V is sliding speed at the

tip seal, L is the length of the tip seal and Fc is the contact force.
The Sommerfeld number under the experimental condition had the
same order as compared to that under an actual condition.
As previously mentioned, the contact force between the tip seal
and the base plate was obtained by subtracting the pressure force
acting inside the tip seal from the vertical load measured by the
load cell. Pressure distribution on the sliding surface of tip seal
was assumed to decrease linearly across the tip seal from the in-
side pressure to the atmospheric pressure at the outside of the tip
seal. As a result, the pressure force acting inside the tip seal was
obtained as a product of the upstream pressure and a circle area
having an average diameter of inner and outer diameter of the tip
seal. Therefore, the contact force, Fc , was obtained as follows.
π
Fc = Fv − P ( D − W )2
4 clearance was calculated based on the gas leakage by the follow-
Where, Fv is the vertical load measured by the load cell, P is
the upstream gauge pressure, D is the outer diameter and W is the
width of the tip seal. In order to verify the estimation of the pres-
sure force, friction tests were conducted with and without supply-
ing the gas pressure. The contact force without the gas supply was
obtained by the load measured by the load cell in the vertical axis.
On the other hand, in the case with supplying the gas into the
tip seal, the contact force was calculated by subtracting the pres-
sure force from the load measured by the load cell. The relation-
ship between the contact force and the frictional force coincided
with each other. It showed that the way to calculate the contact
force even under pressurized condition inside the tip seal was rea-
sonable.
Experimental result
The influence of each parameter was examined with keeping
other parameters constant. The standard conditions are shown in
Table 2 with the underline.
Influence of upstream pressure
The gas leakage across the tip seal against the contact force on
the tip seal is shown in Fig. 3 with taking the upstream pressure
as a parameter. The gas leakage decreased steeply with increasing
the contact force and was suppressed when the contact force ex-
ceeded a certain value. Since the borderline of the contact force at
Fig. 3. Gas leakage against contact force under different upstream pressure.
(3) the point where the leakage becomes zero was vague, an apparent
ing equation with treating the leakage as a single phase of nitrogen
gas.
 12ν W G  13
h=
gas
(4)
PL
Where, ν gas is the kinematic viscosity of nitrogen, W is the
width of the tip seal, G is the gas leakage across the tip seal, P is
the upstream pressure and L is length of the tip seal. The border-
line for suppressing the leakage was defined at the contact force
when the apparent clearance became less than 1 μm, since the
clearance of 1 μm in compressors is thought to be small enough.
In Fig. 3, the leakage when the apparent clearance was larger than
1 μm is shown with filled symbols, while the leakage at smaller
apparent clearance than the borderline is shown with open sym-
bols. The leakage and the frictional force are also shown in the
same manner in the following figures.
As the contact force increased, the leakage steeply decreased
at the certain contact force. The contact force at the point where
the gas leakage decreases steeply became large when the upstream
pressure was large. In order to examine the seal effect of the tip
seal under different upstream pressures, the contact force was nor-
malized by a force, FPb , induced by pressure difference between the
back and the sliding surface of the tip seal, since the tip seal is
generally pressed against the base plate by applying the high side
pressure on the back of the tip seal and therefore the contact force
is proportional to the pressure difference. Figure 4 shows the pres-
sure distribution on the back and the sliding surface of the tip seal

107
M. Fukuta, T. Sotani and M. Motozawa International Journal of Refrigeration 125 (2021) 104–112

Fig. 4. Schematic of force acting on tip seal in seal groove.

in a seal groove on the scroll wrap in an actual compressor. It was

assumed that the pressure on the back equals the upstream pres-
sure (Fukuta et al., 2014) and the pressure on the sliding surface
has the linear distribution. Consequently, the force induced by the
pressure difference was obtained as the product of half of the pres-
sure difference between the upstream and the downstream and an
area of the tip seal, i.e. length L × width W of the tip seal
 
(Pu + Pd ) (Pu − Pd ) P
FPb = LW Pu − = LW = LW (5)
2 2 2

Where, Pu is the upstream pressure and Pd is the downstream

pressure, and P and 0, respectively in the experiment. The leak-
age is re-arranged against the normalized contact force, Fc /FPb , in
Fig. 5. As shown in Fig. 5, tendency of the leakage reduction be-
came the same against the normalized contact force under differ-
ent upstream pressure conditions. It is found that the leakage was
effectively suppressed when the normalized contact force exceeded
0.8. Since the normalized contact force becomes 1 under the con-
dition shown in Fig. 4, the tip seal in an actual compressor proba-
bly works well to prevent the radial leakage.
Figure 6 shows the frictional force at the tip seal against the
contact force for different upstream pressures. The frictional forces
under different upstream pressure show the same value regardless
of the upstream pressure and proportional to the contact force. The
Fig. 5. Gas leakage against normalized contact force under different upstream pres-
ratio of the frictional force to the contact force is a frictional co- sure.
efficient and found to be about 0.01. The frictional coefficient un-
der large leakage condition shown by the filled symbol has smaller
value. This may be resulted from formation of gas film of the gas
mm, respectively. The normalized contact force has the same rela-
leakage which reduced a real contact area between the tip seal and
tionship with the contact pressure in this case. For all seal lengths,
the base plate.
the tendency of the reduction of gas leakage per unit length was
almost the same against the normalized contact force and the leak-
Influence of length and width of the tip seal age was suppressed when the normalized contact force became
about 0.8.
In order to compare the gas leakage with the tip seals hav- The gas leakage at the tip seals having different width are
ing different length, the leakage per unit length is shown in Fig. 7 shown in Fig. 8 against the normalized contact force. The normal-
against the normalized contact force for the tip seals with differ- ized contact force at the point where the gas leakage decreases
ent length. Outer diameters of 34.6 mm, 27.6 mm and 21.6 mm steeply increases with decreasing the width. When the width of
correspond to the tip seal length of 102.7 mm, 80.7 mm and 61.9 the tip seal, i.e. the length of flow path in the radial direction, in-

108
M. Fukuta, T. Sotani and M. Motozawa
Fig. 6. Frictional force against contact force under different upstream pressure.
Fig. 7. Gas leakage against normalized contact force for different tip seal length.
creases, the leakage decreases due to the flow friction. It is, there-
fore, desirable to use a wider tip seal to reduce the gas leakage
across the tip seal.
The frictional force per unit length against the contact pressure
for the tip seals with different length and width is shown in Fig. 9.
From Fig. 9, it was found that the influence of the length and the
width of the tip seal on the frictional force per unit length could
be roughly generalized by the contact pressure. As for the tip seals
with different length, since the relationship between the frictional
force and the contact force is the same as the plots shown in Fig. 9,
the influence of the seal length on the frictional force was little. On
the other hand, since the contact pressure decreases for the wider
tip seal at the same contact force, the frictional force decreased
109
International Journal of Refrigeration 125 (2021) 104–112
Fig. 8. Gas leakage against normalized contact force for different tip seal width.
Fig. 9. Frictional force per unit length against contact pressure for different length
and width of tip seal.
with the wider tip seal. This is because the length in the sliding
direction increases with the tip seal width and it results in eas-
ier formation of oil film on the sliding surface and consequently
reduction of the frictional force. Therefore, it is desirable to use a
wider tip seal to reduce the friction as well as to reduce the leak-
age.
Influence of oil supply rate
Oil supply has large effect on reducing the leakage and the fric-
tion. Figure 10 shows the influence of the oil supply rate on the
gas leakage. The oil supply rate was normalized by an oil flow
rate when the oil flows through a clearance of three times of a
M. Fukuta, T. Sotani and M. Motozawa International Journal of Refrigeration 125 (2021) 104–112

Fig. 11. Frictional force against contact force for different oil supply rate.
Fig. 10. Gas leakage against normalized oil supply rate.

combined roughness of the tip seal surface and the base plate sur-
face, because it is generally said that a solid contact between two
surfaces will occur when the oil film thickness becomes the three
times of combined roughness or less (Patir and Cheng, 1978). The
oil supply rate through the clearance of three times of combined
roughness was calculated based on the plane Poiseuille flow for-
mula and was 0.059 cm3 min−1 in this case. The normalized con-
tact force was controlled to be one, i.e. the contact force under the
condition shown in Fig. 4 as expected in the actual compressor.
In Fig. 10, the gas leakage decreased with increasing the oil sup-
ply rate and becomes zero when the normalized oil supply rate
exceeded 1. It is indicated that under the condition that the tip
seal is pressed against the base plate by the pressure difference
between the back and the sliding surface of the tip seal as shown
in Fig. 4, the oil supply rate for the clearance corresponding to the
three times of combined roughness or more is needed to suppress
the leakage.
Figure 11 shows the relationship between the contact force and
the frictional force for different oil supply rates. The frictional force
slightly decreased as the amount of oil supply rate increased, since
the higher oil supply rate will help to keep good lubricating con-
dition. The frictional coefficient in a range where the leakage was
sufficiently suppressed was around 0.01 in all cases, and the influ-
ence of oil supply rate on the frictional coefficient was small.
Fig. 12. Gas leakage against normalized contact force under different rotational
speed.
Influence of rotational speed

The relationship between the gas leakage and the normalized
contact force are shown in Fig. 12 for different rotational speeds.
Experiments were carried out at 150, 375 and 600 rpm and cor-
responding sliding speed were 0.09,0.24 and 0.38 m s−1 , respec-
tively. As shown in Fig. 12, there was no influence of the rotational
speed on the gas leakage across the tip seal. The frictional coeffi-
cient at the region where the gas leakage sufficiently suppressed
are plotted for the different rotational speeds in Fig. 13 against the
Sommerfeld number as the Stribeck curve. The viscosity of oil at
room temperature was used in the Sommerfeld number defined by
Eq. (2). When the Sommerfeld number was smaller than 3 × 10−6 ,
the frictional coefficient decreased as the Sommerfeld number in-
creased. The lubrication condition in this region was, therefore, ex-
pected to be a mixed lubrication. On the other hand, the frictional
coefficient increased with the Sommerfeld number when the Som-
merfeld number was larger than 3 × 10−6 . This region was ex-
pected to be a boundary between the mixed lubrication and a hy-
drodynamic lubrication. The frictional coefficient and the lubricat-
ing condition could be evaluated with the Stribeck curve.
Influence of oil viscosity
Figure 14 shows the relationship between the leakage and the
normalized contact force for different kinematic viscosity of oil.

110
M. Fukuta, T. Sotani and M. Motozawa
Fig. 13. Stribeck curve under different rotational speed.
Fig. 14. Gas leakage against normalized contact force for different oil viscosity.
The kinematic viscosities were 10 and 100 mm2 s−1 at 40°C, re-
spectively. Although the gas leakage was smaller with higher vis-
cosity oil at small contact force due to its sealing effect, the con-
tact force at the point where the leakage was suppressed was al-
most the same in both cases. It was found that the oil viscos-
ity had little effect reducing the leakage across the tip seal ex-
cept the condition that the leakage was significant through large
clearance. The Stribeck curves for the oils having different kine-
matic viscosity are shown in Fig 15. The frictional coefficient for
the high viscosity oil was higher than that for the low viscosity
oil due to high viscous shearing force. The Stribeck curves show
convex shape and most of lubricating condition with the high vis-
111
International Journal of Refrigeration 125 (2021) 104–112
Fig. 15. Stribeck curve for different oil viscosity.
cosity oil was found to be dominated by the hydrodynamic lubri-
cation. The Sommerfeld number showing the minimum frictional
coefficient in the Stribeck curve was larger with the high viscosity
oil. This was probably caused by viscosity change by temperature
increase at the frictional surface. Since the contact force in the case
of high viscosity oil was larger than that of low viscosity oil under
the same Sommerfeld number, the viscosity reduction by the tem-
perature increase for the high viscosity oil will be larger than that
for the low viscosity oil, and the difference of Sommerfeld num-
bers at the minimum frictional coefficient for both cases will be-
come small. Since the oil viscosity did not affect the sealing effect
under the effectively sealed condition as shown in Fig. 14, the oil
viscosity with which the frictional coefficient becomes minimum
will be an optimum.
Conclusions
In this study, an experimental apparatus which could evaluate
gas leakage across a tip seal of scroll compressors and frictional
force simultaneously was developed. The influences of upstream
pressure, length and width of the tip seal, oil supply rate, rota-
tional speed and oil viscosity on the leakage and the friction were
examined. The following conclusions were obtained.
Pressing force generated by pressure difference between back
and sliding surface of the tip seal was introduced to normalize the
contact force between the tip seal and a base plate. The normalized
contact force above 0.8 was enough to suppress the leakage across
the tip seal. The frictional coefficient was about 0.01.
The gas leakage per unit length was generalized by the nor-
malized contact force for the tip seals with different length. The
wider tip seal suppressed the leakage across the tip seal effectively.
The frictional force per unit length was proportional to the contact
pressure at the tip seals with different length and width. The wider
tip seal could reduce the frictional force.
Under the condition that the tip seal was pressed against the
base plate by the pressure difference between the back and the
sliding surface of the tip seal, the oil supply rate for a clearance
corresponding to three times of combined surface roughness or
M. Fukuta, T. Sotani and M. Motozawa
more was needed to suppress the leakage. The frictional force
slightly decreased as the amount of oil supply rate increased.
There is no influence of the rotational speed on the gas leakage.
Based on the Stribeck curve, the lubrication condition at the tip
seal was found to be the boundary between mixed lubrication and
hydrodynamic lubrication.
The frictional coefficient became larger with high viscosity oil
due to the viscous shearing force of oil. The oil viscosity did not
affect the sealing effect under the effectively sealed condition and
the oil viscosity with which the frictional coefficient becomes min-
imum will be an optimum.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
References
Adachi, K., Fukuta, M., Yanagisawa, T., 2012. Fundamental study on leakage flow at
small clearance with solid contact. In: Proceedings of the JSRAE Annual Confer-
ence, p. D113.
112
International Journal of Refrigeration 125 (2021) 104–112
Ancel, C., Lamoine, P., Didier, F., 20 0 0. Tip behavior in scroll compressor. In: Pro-
ceedings of the 15th International Compressor Engineering Conference at Pur-
due, pp. 691–698.
Fukuta, M., Ogi, D., Motozawa, M., Yanagisawa, T., Iwanami, S., Hotta, T., 2014. Seal
mechanism of tip seal in scroll compressor. In: Proceedings of the 22nd Inter-
national Compressor Engineering Conference at Purdue, p. 1255.
Inaba, T., Sugihara, M., Nakamura, T., Kimura, T., Morishita, E., 1986. A scroll com-
pressor with sealing means and low pressure side shell. In: Proceedings of the
International Compressor Engineering Conference Paper 577.
Japanese Society of Tribologists, 1975. Lubrication handbook. Yokendo, Tokyo in
Japanese.
Kitamura, T., Fukuta, M., Motozawa, M., 2016. Study on tangential leakage along
tip seal in scroll compressor. In: Proceedings of the JSRAE Annual Conference,
p. C111 in Japanese.
Kitamura, T., Fukuta, M., Motozawa, M., Sotani, T., 2018. Leakage and friction mea-
surement at tip seal of scroll compressors. In: Proceedings of the 9th Asian Con-
ference on Refrigeration and Air-conditioning, p. 2293.
Lee, B.C., Yanagisawa, T., Fukuta, M., Choi, S., 2002. A study on the leakage charac-
teristics of tip seal mechanism in the scroll compressor. In: Proceedings of the
International Compressor Engineering Conference Paper 1586.
Patir, N., Cheng, H.S., 1978. An average flow model for determining effects of three-
-dimensional roughness on partial hydrodynamic lubrication. Trans. ASME J.
Lubr. Technol. 100, 12–17.
Sotani, T., Fukuta, M., Motozawa, M., 2019. Leakage and friction measurement under
tip seal of scroll compressor. In: Proceedings of the JSRAE Annual Conference,
p. D233 in Japanese.
Youn, Y., Cho, N.K., Lee, B.C., Min, M.K., 20 0 0. The characteristics of tip leakage in
scroll compressor for air conditioners. In: Proceedings of the International Com-
pressor Engineering Conference at Purdue No.1465.