Foil Face Seal For Advanced Gas Turbine Engines

There is a great need of gas turbine engines providing reduced specific fuel consumption (SFC), lower production and maintenance cost, and higher power to weight ratio. Innovative gas path seals are required to meet these goals and improve performance. Traditionally labyrinth seals have been used at various locations including at the hot turbine section of the engine. Significant amount of research has been done to replace these seals with brush, hydrostatic and hydrodynamic seals. None of these concepts have provided a satisfactory solution yet. Preliminary work has provided a foundation and cataylst that a foil face seal based on the theory of successful foil thrust bearings will greatly improve gas path seals required for advanced turbine engines. In Phase I, feasibility will be proven by analysis, design and limited testing. In Phase II, a full size foil face seal will be designed, built and laboratory tested in an environment similar to a gas turbine engine. In Phase III, the developed full foil face seal will be installed in an actual gas turbine engine and tested.