T14: Dry Gas Seal Contamination And Solutions To Increase Seal Reliability

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Date

2021

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Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station

Abstract

Recent incident reports and studies indicate that dry gas seals are responsible for only 39% of compressor shut downs and are themost reliable sealing solution However, if the dry gas seal fails the costs can be very high and the availability of the whole plantmight be constrained The major causes of dry gas seal failure can be clustered in four different incidents from which three are relatedto contamination Process gas contamination Seal gas supply contamination Bearing/Lube oil contaminationThe seal gas line of the dry gas seal supply system is designed and manufactured to supply clean and dry gas to the dry gas sealNevertheless, the originally designed filters and treatment components of the supply system may no longer fit to the current operatingconditions of the machine anymore as gas composition, temperature or pressure requirements are changing over time As well duringupset or transient operating conditions, the functionality of the supply system might be limited Upgrading the supply system to cope with the current process requirements is often a difficult venture, which requires the involvement of various parties Enabling the sealinstead to cope with difficult environments can be a first solution to ensure the availability of the plantThis paper will contain information on the following topics: Different types of contamination Dry gas seal failure mode due to contamination Solutions to increase seal reliability How to tackle process gas contamination Design features to handle seal gas supply contamination Avoid/handle bearing/lube oil contamination

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