Tribological performance of UV picosecond laser multi-scale composite textures for C/SiC mechanical seals: Theoretical analysis and experimental verification

Abstract The performance of mechanical seals can be improved by using multi-scale composite textures with spiral grooves and micro-dimples, but without a clear texture function mechanism, it is difficult to optimize the textures on the sealing surface. This research established a mathematical model based on the mass-conservative JFO cavitation boundary to analyze the mechanical seal performance of multi-scale composite micro-textures. We use the multi-grid method for numerical solutions, investigate the hydrodynamic lubrication characteristics of composite-textured mechanical seals, and inspect the coupling effect of micro-dimples and spiral grooves. We also analyzed the influence of the geometrical parameters of composite textures on the sealing performance and optimized the sealing surface textures using theoretical analysis. The numerical analysis showed that the multi-scale composite-textured mechanical seal produced a coupling effect between the micro-dimples and spiral grooves, which improved the lubrication of the sealing pair. Eventually, C/SiC mechanical seal bench tests confirmed the tribological improvement of composite textures compared with the un-textured seal under various sealing liquid pressures and rotation speeds. Through comparing the Stribeck curve, the multi-scale composite textured C/SiC mechanical seals have a lower and more stable friction torque than the un-textured.