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Quornish
shipto:
--- Quote from: vtsteam on March 07, 2025, 12:10:10 PM ---Lots of progress, Dwayne. :clap:
I kinda wondered about labyrinth seals myself. Tesla had a one way valve that used labyrinths, and then there's the scores we put on small pistons. I imagined that it was kind of like sequential pressure drops by restrictions and expansion passages.
But I found this here just now, that says turbulence is involved, so it's more than just additive pressure drops into expansions:
https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/29452/using-labyrinth-seals
--- End quote ---
That similar to the page I looked at for an explanation, maybe a dim moment but I still dont quite get it. As long as it does the job I guess it doesn't matter.
vtsteam:
True, if it works that's what you really need.
I think of eddies in the spaces between as little whirlpools of lubricant. They push back against any pressure to pass. When I used to do whitewater canoeing, you'd see eddies behind rocks which stuck out of the water. If you maneuvered your canoe behind the rock, pointing upstream, it would stay put there with water rushing either side of you. You could sit there and eat lunch if you wanted -- we sometimes did.
When the water passes the rock, there's basically a hole in the flow behind the rock. Water from immediately downstream tries to fill that hole, and to do that it has to flow upstream toward the rock. That's the eddy. It's water that is flowing opposite the main current direction, and that's what keeps you parked against the rock.
So eddies in a labyrinth seal must be doing something similar -- the flanges of the seal are acting like the rock, and behind it in the pocket there must be a counter current pushing against the leakage of fluid. Maybe they put several of these in a row to reduce the leakage to nil.
Well that's about as far as I can imagine it working anyway.
shipto:
--- Quote from: vtsteam on March 09, 2025, 02:39:28 PM ---True, if it works that's what you really need.
I think of eddies in the spaces between as little whirlpools of lubricant. They push back against any pressure to pass. When I used to do whitewater canoeing, you'd see eddies behind rocks which stuck out of the water. If you maneuvered your canoe behind the rock, pointing upstream, it would stay put there with water rushing either side of you. You could sit there and eat lunch if you wanted -- we sometimes did.
When the water passes the rock, there's basically a hole in the flow behind the rock. Water from immediately downstream tries to fill that hole, and to do that it has to flow upstream toward the rock. That's the eddy. It's water that is flowing opposite the main current direction, and that's what keeps you parked against the rock.
So eddies in a labyrinth seal must be doing something similar -- the flanges of the seal are acting like the rock, and behind it in the pocket there must be a counter current pushing against the leakage of fluid. Maybe they put several of these in a row to reduce the leakage to nil.
Well that's about as far as I can imagine it working anyway.
--- End quote ---
Sounds impressive to me even if its wrong. :lol:
vtsteam:
That's what I like to hear! :lol:
shipto:
Confession time I made a mistake. When making the two base pieces I welded the upright mounting place on the wrong side of the bar stock which became apparent when I started to line things up. So I had to grind the bits apart and reweld them and I think I have got away with it everything seems to line up still at least.
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