Numerical study of flow field and leakage characteristics of labyrinth seal for high speed gearbox

The interlocking labyrinth seal numerical simulation model of the transmission gear box for a certain type of high-power locomotives is established in this paper.The boundary conditions is established by analyzing the mechanism of labyrinth seal and the influence factors of leakage.The flow and leakage within labyrinth seal are studied by solving the Navier-Stokes equations and energy equations in Fluent.The effects of rotational speed,pressure ratio and sealing clearance on the leakage characteristics of the labyrinth seal are numerically investigated.The simulation results indicate that the leakage coefficient of labyrinth seal increases first and then changes slowly with the increase of pressure ratio;The rotational speed plays a small role on sealing effectiveness;There is a piecewise linearity between the leakage coefficient and the clearance.