A New Concept in Mechanical Seal Cooling—the Integral Heat Sink

Thermally induced failures have long since plagued mechanical seal users. Over the years these failures have led to the development of different flush plan and seal design features that are used to increase heat transfer from the seal interface. In this paper the first experimental results for a new mechanical seal design operating in a pump are presented. In this design a heat sink, consisting of thousands of micron sized cooling pins, is constructed on the end face of the stationary seal ring just below the sealing interface. Since the entire heat sink is constructed within millimeters of the interface, there is an extremely small thermal resistance between the interface and the coolant. Two prototype experiments are carried out; one for dry running conditions at pressure velocity values of 14.0 MPa m/s (400,000 psi*ft/min) and the other with the seal installed in a small ANSI water pump operating under dead head conditions. Results demonstrate that the heat sink is effective in controlling the seal temperature even under extreme operating conditions, and providing sealing with no visible leakage.