Compressible Ceramic Seal
AssigneeSiemens Energy, Inc.
InventorsGary B. Merrill, Jay A. Morrison
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A stack of substantially parallel ceramic plates (22) separated and interconnected by ceramic spacers (26, 27) forming a seal structure (20) with a length (L), a width (W), and a thickness (T). The spacers are narrower in width than the plates, and may be laterally offset from spacers in adjacent rows to form a space (28) in a row that aligns with a spacer in another adjacent row. An adjacent plate bends into the space when the seal structure is compressed in thickness. The spacers may have gaps (60, 62) forming a stepped or labyrinthine cooling flow path (66) within the seal structure. The spacers of each row may vary in lateral separation, thus providing a range of compressibility that varies along the width of the seal structure.
Claims18
A compressible seal, comprising:
- a stack of substantially parallel ceramic plates separated and interconnected by ceramic spacers, thus forming a seal structure with a length, a width, and a thickness;
- at least some adjacent ones of the plates being separated by a respective row of one or more of the spacers;
- wherein the spacers are narrower in width than the plates to define respective spaces in each row of spacers such that an adjacent plate bends into the space when the seal structure is compressed in thickness.
A compressible seal, comprising:
- a stack of substantially parallel ceramic plates separated and interconnected by ceramic spacers, thus forming a seal structure with a length, a width, and a thickness;
- each pair of adjacent ones of the plates separated by a row of one or more of the spacers;
- wherein the spacers are narrower in width than the plates, and the spacers are laterally offset from each other in adjacent rows of spacers, forming a space in each row of spacers that aligns with a spacer in an adjacent row, such that an adjacent plate bends into the space when the seal structure is compressed in thickness;
- and
- wherein at least some of the spacers have one or more transverse gaps along the length of the seal structure, such that a cooling gas can flow from a first side of the seal structure into at least some of the spaces between the plates.
A compressible seal for fluids, comprising:
- a stack of odd-numbered ceramic layers from 1 to N, separated by even numbered layers from 2 to N-1, wherein each even-numbered layer comprises one or more spacers separating and connecting two adjacent odd numbered layers, thus forming a seal structure, and wherein each even-numbered layer further comprises one or more air spaces between said two adjacent odd-numbered layers;
- wherein at least some of the spacers align with an air space in an adjacent even-numbered layer, such that an adjacent odd-numbered layer bends into the air space when the seal structure is compressed in a direction normal to the layers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.