Abstract: Labyrinth seal plays an important role in the rotor dynamics stability of rotating machinery. The calculation time of traditional models increases significantly with the increase of the number of seal teeth. For this reason, a new transfer model of labyrinth seal is set up. A single tooth or cavity is considered as the basic element in this model. The single seal element model is set up by using radial basis function neutral net work. All of the seal elements are connected in series along the flow direction according to continuity condition. The inlet and outlet boundary conditions are used to solve the fluid parameters of each cavity by an iterative procedure. As an example, a seal transfer model is set up on the basis of the two control volume model. Results show that the new model can be used to analyze the flow in multiple-cavity seal effectively. The iterative procedure is convergent. The method decreases the calculation costs of seal with multiple cavities effectively. It can also be combined with computational fluid dynamics models and other models.

Key words: Labyrinth seal, Transfer model, Two-control-volume model