DYNAMIC SHAFT SEALS IN SPACE.

A theoretical investigation of rotating fluid ring seals was completed. The analysis predicts the performance of plain rotating housing and rotating disk seals. The experimental investigation of the interface instability associated with rotating fluid ring seals continued utilizing the water seal test rig. The testing provided additional data concerning the extreme operating range of the dynamic zero leakage DZL seals which were designed to alleviate the interface instability problem. So far, two seal concepts have been developed which suppressed liquid leakage up to speeds of 20, 000 RPM. Water seal testing was also performed on the rotating disksqueeze seal configuration to obtain additional test data for correlating the squeeze seal results with theoretical analysis. The open loop of the water seal rig facility was converted to a close loop so that other fluids such as oil can be evaluated as sealing fluids. Seal testing for the SNAP 8 project using Dows ET378 oil was initiated. Author