Loading patent…
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsBharat S. Bagepalli, R. Paul Chiu, Robert Harold Cromer, Gregory Allan Crum, Osman Saim Dinc, Anthony Holmes Furman, Paul Thomas Marks, Rudolf Matthias Markytan, David Robert Skinner, Norman Arnold Turnquist, Christopher Edward Wolfe
Estimating the term…
Brush seals are retrofitted into existing turbine labyrinth seal rings to create a fail-safe seal design at locations wherever labyrinth seals are currently used, including interstage shaft seals, rotor end seals, bucket (or blade) tip seals and spill strips. Brush seals, per se, when used in place of labyrinth seals, can result in considerable span reductions of steam turbines, or machines with more turbine stages for a given span. Application to end packings results in the potential elimination of gland sealing/exhauster systems. Brush seal life can be improved by retrofitting brush segments to labyrinth seal segments that are either spring-backed, or use pressure loads to obtain design clearances only after steady state operating conditions are achieved. The brush seals are provided with backing plates shaped like labyrinth teeth, resulting in a fail-safe design. Also, the use of existing labyrinth teeth as bristle backing plates results in a brush seal with diminished susceptibility to hysteresis when compared to conventional brush seal designs. Low friction coatings can also be used to reduce brush seal hysteresis. Incorporation of brush seals in labyrinth seal rings that are either spring-backed or held in place by pressure forces results in extremely low brush seal wear.
In a rotary machine having a rotatable component comprised of a plurality of rotatable blades and a component comprised of a sealing strip fixed against rotation, said components lying about a common axis, said blades carrying covers adjacent radial outer ends thereof, and a labyrinth seal between said components including at least one generally circumferentially extending tooth carried by said sealing strip and projecting generally radially toward said covers to effect a seal therebetween, a method of forming a combination labyrinth and brush seal between said strip and said covers, comprising the steps of fitting a circumferential array of discrete bristles on said strip axially adjacent said at least one tooth by securing said array of discrete bristles to said strip with the bristles lying in a plane generally normal to said axis and with the distal ends thereof projecting toward said covers beyond the radial extent of said one tooth for substantial sealing engagement with said covers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.