Abstract: A kind of tangential labyrinth for the scroll compressor’s tangential sealing is presented. The algorithms to calculate the leakage through radial clearance of the original and the new structures are developed. The leakage under the different pressure differences of the two adjoining pressure chambers are obtained by calculation and experiment. The results show that the algorithms for the leakage through radial clearance of the two kinds of structures are correct, and the leakages of the two structures become large with the increase of the pressure differences of the two adjoining pressure chambers, the ratio of the leakage of the tangential labyrinth accounts for that of the original structure is basically constant at about 46.3%. All these show that the tangential labyrinth has better sealing performance under the different pressure differences compared with the former sealing structure.

Key words: Leakage, Pressure difference, Sealing performance, Tangential labyrinth seal