Effect of rotor-mounted protrusion on sealing performance and flow structure in rotor-stator cavity

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the effect of protrusion radial position and height on the sealing performance and flow structure in the rotor-stator cavity. The rotor-mounted protrusions are assembled at three radial positions and are set to three heights. The cavity is equipped with three rim seals: a radial seal, an axial seal and a seal with double fins on the stator. The annulus Reynolds number is set at $4.39\times {10}^5$ and the rotational Reynolds number ranges from $7.51\times {10}^5$ to $1.20\times {10}^6$. Heat and mass transfer analogy is applied. Pressure and ${\mathrm{C}\mathrm{O}}_2$ concentration are measured. The experimental results show that in cavities with different rim seals, radial distributions of the sealing efficiency, pressure and swirl ratio are basically the same. The sealing performance is improved by protrusions compared with the cavity without protrusion and improves with the increase of protrusion radial position and height. The effect of protrusion increases with the increase of the rotational Reynolds number. The windage loss and the flow resistance introduced by protrusions are investigated. It is found that induced windage loss and flow resistance decrease with the increase of protrusion radial position but increase with the protrusion height.