Seals are generally inexpensive machine elements, but in industrial fluid power systems the costs of sealing failure can be much higher than the cost of replacing the damaged seal due to, e.g., costs related to process downtime. Consequently, careful design evaluation is needed. In this study, the capability of a large diameter rotary face seal of spring-loaded type to respond to unwanted axial motion between the sealing surfaces caused by sudden changes in loading of components of the process machinery was evaluated.
Explicit fmite element analysis, well suited for highly non-linear problems involving frictional contact, was used to compute the response of the seal to forced relative axial motion of the sealing surfaces. For condition monitoring, temporal variation of the total contact force exerted on the counterface, i.e., the sealing force during excitations was recorded, representing simple virtual sensor output describing the relation between axial motion and contact situation.