Prediction of Tribological Behavior of Candidate Materials for Rotor Seals

To reduce high costs associated with manufacturing and testing materials for rotor seals, a procedure needs to be developed to quickly and accurately test candidate materials as they are released. The test should reduce the amount of fabrication required and model working conditions in order to accurately assess the tribological behavior of candidate materials. A possible solution was examined that utilized a rig meant to model operational stresses and wear. Compression modulus data was then taken in order to quantify the accumulation of damage due to microcracking, the primary mode of failure, through a damage index parameter. Testing results concluded that the methods used do not recreate working conditions accurately enough to obtain reliable tribological data due to high variability in the rig, the introduction of damage not typically seen in working rotor seals, and only one failure mode is being accounted for