Abstract: Magnetic fluid seal is a new type of sealing method that offer several advantages, including “zero” leakage, high reliability, and long life. However, due to the particular structure of magnetic fluid seals, it can be difficult to observe the leakage path generated in in the sealing gap during the sealing failure process. And this results in incomplete research on the mechanism of magnetic fluid seal. To conduct a visualization research on leakage path of magnetic fluid seal, the location and shape of the leakage path resulting from a ruptured magnetic fluid seal in a capillary tube can be determined through theoretical derivation. A visual structure is designed based on the magnetic fluid seal experimental system in a capillary tube and relative experiments are conducted to confirm this theory. The results showed that the leakage path is situated at the geometric center of the capillary tube. The cross-section of the path is similar to an ellipse, with its long axis parallel to the direction of the magnetic fields.

Key words: magnetic fluid, seal, leakage path, visualization of seal