Abstract
The work presented here concerns the numerical development and simulation of the flow, pressure patterns, and motion of a pair of fingers arranged one behind the other and axially aligned in line. The fingers represent the basic elemental component of a finger seal and form a tight seal around the rotor. Yet their flexibility allows compliance with rotor motion and, in a passive-adaptive mode, compliance with the hydrodynamic forces induced by the flowing fluid. Although this article does not treat the actual staggered configuration of a finger seal, the in-line arrangement represents a first step toward that final goal. The numerical two-dimensional (axial-radial) and three-dimensional results presented herein were obtained using a commercial package (CFD-ACE+). Both models use an integrated numerical approach, which couples the hydrodynamic fluid model based on Navier-Stokes equations to the solid mechanics code that models the compliance of the fingers.