Performance comparison and parametric study on spiral groove gas film face seals

Several spiral groove gas film face seals (SGFS) with different layouts are compared quantitatively to analyze their merits and faults and application behaviors. In addition, a parametric study on downstream mode SGFS is conducted to determine its optimal parameters under certain working conditions. In the computation of gas film pressure on the face, finite element method (FEM) is applied to adapt to complicated geometrical boundary.