Investigation into the effect of piston ring seals on an integrated squeeze film damper model

This research presents an advanced squeeze film damper model that integrates piston ring seal geometry, fluid inertia, and film cavitation to study their combined features. The configuration of the piston ring seal is inspected, and different sealing scenarios are discussed. The flow rate in the seal arrangement is determined on the basis of the pressure gradient according to thin film theory. Moreover, the governing equation for the flow in the film land that considers fluid inertia is solved using the linear complementarity problem method to address the cavitation phenomenon. Validation is performed by comparing the model prediction with long bearing and short bearing models under different seal dimensions. Results show that an oversized gap in the seal grooves and a large frictional coefficient may lock the piston ring seal in the seal groove and thus reduce seal efficiency.