Understanding Mechanical Seal Flush Rates

By: John E. Finley, Sales Engineer & Tom Borrino, Regional Engineer Published: 04/29/2004

In most seal designs, the heat generated at the faces enters the fluid surrounding the seal. This often results in an increase in temperature for the fluid unless it is cooled or continuously replaced or the fluid may become too hot for reliable seal performance. For this reason, most seals operate with continuous replacement of the surrounding fluid - a process known as "seal flush." Under certain conditions, some seals can operate satisfactorily without a flush, however, the standard practice today involves use of a flush system. Applications without a flush are called dead-ended seals. These usually involve non-volatile fluids at low speeds and low pressures. For these seals, heat is transferred from the seal faces through the liquid and into the metal surrounding the seal chamber. In scenarios that will benefit from a flush system, however, there are many choices. The American Petroleum Institute (API) has categorized and labeled the common systems as API Flush Plans and flush requirements are often given in minimum or recommended flow rates. A certain minimum flush is needed to obtain the performance of the seal. Heat generated at the seal faces is absorbed by the flush through ideal mixing. This raises the temperature of the flush. Typically, increases of 15-degrees-Fahrenheit for water and low volatility fluids, 30-degrees-Fahrenheit for lube oils and 5-degrees-Fahreneht for volatile hydrocarbons are allowed. Seal performance generally improves when the flush rate is greater than the minimum. As heat transfer improves and the average temperature around the seal decreases with an increased flush rate, face temperature and wear rate decreases. Therefore, the recommended flush rate should be based on experience with similar applications. Considerations should

include performance goals, fluid properties, seal chamber design and seal design. In the absence of specific experience, the rule of thumb is 1 gpm/inch of seal size as the minimum flush rate. For more information, consult with John Crane Inc. to ensure that all of the aforementioned issues are addressed and the mechanical seal is engineered properly for the application before installing any hardware.

Understanding the Effects of Abrasive Particles on Mechanical Seal Faces

By: John E. Finley, Sales Engineer & Tom Borrino, Regional Engineer Published: 04/27/2004

Every seal application should be reviewed in terms of the optimal means of minimizing the effects of solids. Flushing, quenching, integrating hard face materials and reducing the forces that close the seal faces are just some of proven tools used to combat abrasives. However, the first step in preventing a problem is evaluating the seal face film. Liquid face films are generally on the order of 10 to 20 micro-inches thick and heat generation at the faces is in part a function of film thickness. As the film becomes thinner, heat generation increases and the faces distort and become wavy where they should be flat. This waviness creates lift and re-establishes the normal face film thickness. As a general rule, particles under 5 micro-inches in size pass through the seal faces without causing any direct abrasion. However, these very fine particles can build-up on the atmospheric side of the seal and represent a seal face hang-up issue. For example, if the film exits the faces as a vapor, like most water applications, all solids including those dissolved will work to hang-up the seal faces. Faces that are not free to move typically wear and leak abnormally and thus eventually fail. Interestingly, most seals fail before the faces are worn out, largely because of the long-term effects of these dissolved solids and very fine abrasives.

excessive dissolved solids are at the greatest risk. These systems also benefit from two hard seal faces as well as cooling the seal flush or a quench. The film thickness typically is what dictates how the particles affect the seal and th 5 to 40 ranges are used to cover most of the situations seen by liquid film seals.

Proven Solutions With an understanding of the cause of failure and degradation, the next step is remediation. Although a common solution is the application hard faces or filtering, it is important to recogniz that this option addresses the primary issue of face wear but it may not address the issue of hang-up. Likewise, filters and clean injects mus be reliable in order to not cause other types of seal failures. Filtering seal flush is just one proven means of minimizing risk with regards t hard solids and cyclone separators can be applied with the help of sealing engineer professionals. Another option is manipulation o seal arrangement by a sealing engineer. As a general rule, it is always better to hold solids in suspension at the outside of the seal faces as this minimizes the risk associated with packing the seal with solids. If the solids are held again the inside of the seal faces, the annular gaps a generally smaller and it is easier to hang-up the flexibly-mounted seal face. The use of double

Therefore, using a quench to clear the atmospheric side of the seal faces of these solids may increase seal life. It also is important to note that particles greater than 40 micro-inches have very little chance of abrading the lapped seal faces as they are too large to enter the film. However, they can build up around the seal faces as solids seem attracted to hot spots in the system and cause problems with seal hang-up and heat transfer from the seal rings to the liquid that bathes them. The turbulence of the seal flush injection is valuable in knocking these types of solids away from the seal faces. Solids between 5 and 40 micro-inches (between 1/8 and 1 micron) also are capable of getting into the film and likely to cause abrasion, even though it is typically the softer carbon seal face that is more severely worn from the abrasive. However, it is just as common that the abrasives become embedded into the softer material and act as a grinding disk against the harder seal face. Either way, the wear is abnormal and leads to seal failure. As such, these are applications that best benefit from the application of two hard seal faces. Another means by which these particles in the 5to 40-micro-inch size range can adversely affect a mechanical seal is by building-up and separating the seal faces. Leakage is in part a function of the cube of the film thickness, so if the solids build-up on the face, they can spread them apart and cause failure type leakage rates. This is especially prevalent in warm and hot water systems or any other system where the film may be subject to vaporizing. In the water systems, those that have

seals also is an option. By forcing a clean fluid across the seal faces, the progression that lead to seal failure can be averted, though double seals present their own risks with regards to preventative maintenance, process dilution and heat.

Be careful not to fall into the trap of replacing one cause of failure with another. Keep records to determine how the same failure modes reoccur if no action is taken to alleviate them o another failure mode becomes the primary cau of failure as a result of eliminating the known problem. Also be wary of making decisions simply on the cost of the remedy with little rega to the cost of the failure. For example, carbide seal faces, cyclone separators and quench gla plates are generally higher-price hardware item however, evaluate these components with regards to their life-cycle cost. The total cost of seal failure will likely include down-time, proces dilution, utilities, hardware, labor and more. Yo seal vendor should not only help you identify an remedy these failure modes, but also provide you access to experts, application techniques, products, software, training and other data necessary to ensure a reliable sealing solution.