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AssigneeTechnology Commercialization Corp.
InventorsBoris Y Ganelin, Michael W Kenworthy
Estimating the term…
A method and apparatus to reduce the axial thrust in rotary machines such as compressors, centrifugal pumps, turbines, etc. includes providing additional peripheral restrictive means (7) attached at the peripheral portion of the disk forming the subdividing means (4) on the side facing the rotating rotor (2). An additional ring element at the periphery of the subdividing means forms additional radial (11) and axial restrictive means (15). Such peripheral restrictive means (7, 11 and 15) function as sealing dams, which combined with the outward flow induced by the rotating impeller, form self-pressurizing hydrodynamic bearings in the axial and radial planes, improving rotordynamic stability. Additionally, a stationary ring element in the center of the cavity forms a seal with the rotor, reducing leakage to suction.
A rotary machine with reduced axial thrust comprising:
A method to reduce axial thrust in a rotary machine, said machine including a housing shroud with a center and a periphery and an interior wall surface, said machine further including a rotor with a radial surface, said rotor rotatably mounted on a shaft supported in the center of said housing, said radial surface of the rotor being adjacent to said interior wall surface of the shroud thereby defining a cavity therebetween, said cavity having a central area proximate to the center of said housing shroud and a peripheral area proximate to the periphery of said housing shroud, said method including a step of subdividing a fluid flow in said cavity into a first flow of said fluid and a second flow of said fluid, said step therefore separating said first fluid flow from said second fluid flow, said method further including a step of additionally altering said first fluid flow in the peripheral area of said cavity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.