Finely Striated Lip-Seal Surfaces: Part 1—General Effects

Abstract

The work presented previously by To̸nder and Salant (1992) is extended and generalized. In that work it was shown that the fine, axially oriented striations found on some lip-seals, under certain conditions, could lead to the total suppression of leakage through a fully lubricated seal. In the present work the behavior of the lubricant annulus is studied, as are the conditions required for leakage suppression. If the latter are met, it is shown that when a certain parameter—here called the seal number—is increased, the lubricant annulus width will shrink. This will lead to a reduction of the friction force. It is further shown that the striated roughness will also generate a radial force or load capacity. This effect does not involve local cavitation.