The Calculation of Shaft Seal Steady State Radial Loads with Non-Uniform Cross-Section and Local Stretch Forces Included

Previous attempts to calculate the amount of force a given shaft seal will exert on a shaft have, in general, considered an oversimplified model. The radial loading was assumed to consist of two separate forces which are additive. A beam force is obtained by considering the seal section as a straight uniform beam, and a stretch force is calculated as a separate unrelated phenomenon. A model is introduced that considers the seal as a cantilever beam of non-uniform cross section with local stretch forces included as local beam loadings. The beam forces and stretch forces are thus seen to be intimately related phenomenon. The resulting differential equation has been solved numerically using a method of invariant embedding. The radial loads and seal deflection curves have been obtained and compared to experimental data.