ANALYSIS OF A TEST-CASE FOR ANNULAR SEAL FLOWS

The paper presents a theoretical investigation of the flow field insid e a 50 percent eccentricity, synchronously whirling, annular seal. The numerical results are obtained using a specific rotordynamic method b ased on the perturbed form of the averaged full Navier-Stokes equation s. Experimental data for this seal are provided by Morrison et al. (19 94, 1995) and Morrison and Winslow (1995). The calculated flow field ( stator pressures and shear stresses, distributed forces, velocity and turbulent kinetic energy distributions) is in good qualitative agreeme nt with the measured one. It is evidenced that the particular form of the pressure field is due to a great pressure recovery effect in the e xit section. This problem could be used as a test case for annular sea l flows, but the high eccentricity is at the limit of a perturbation-b ased method.