Investigations into rubbing wear behavior of honeycomb land against labyrinth fin with periodic-cell model

The periodic-cell model was proposed to simulate the successive contacts between the labyrinth fin and multiple honeycomb cells. With the experimental data, the finite-element-analysis (FEA) method with the periodic-cell model was validated. The effects of incursion parameters (i.e. incursion depth, incursion rate and sliding velocity) on the contact force, frictional temperature, material loss, and worn geometry of the honeycomb seal during the incursion process were studied. With the predicted worn geometry, the sealing performance degradation in the honeycomb seal was analyzed. The results showed that the proposed periodic-cell model has an excellent accuracy in predicting the wear behavior of honeycomb seal in rubbing events. The contact force between the honeycomb liner and labyrinth fin is pronounced especially at low sliding velocity and high incursion rate conditions, which increases the possibility of wear damage in the rotor part. At low sliding velocity and low incursion rate conditions, the frictional heat transferring to rotor part is increased, which increases the thermal stress near the contact region of the rotor part. As the clearance gap of honeycomb seal increases from 0.6 mm to 0.9 mm in the rubbing event, the leakage rate is increased by about 12%, and the carry-over effects downstream of the worn cells are increased.