Abstract
As the tangential flow inside the clearance of tribo elements such as bearings and seals is increased as the shaft speed increases, the system stability will be decreased due to the increment of the instability parameter. To reduce the tangential flow inside the clearance of the balance sleeve, anti-swirl injection mechanism is applied. The balance sleeve is used in resisting the axial force induced by impeller in high pressure multi-stage pump. In this paper, total three cases are experimentally investigated; original balance sleeve, anti-swirl injection balance sleeve with 0 axial degree and anti-swirl injection balance sleeve with 30 axial degree. Experiments are focused in the comparison of vibration level and leakage flow rate. The results clearly shows that the anti-swirl injection balance sleeve with 0 axial degree improves the vibration characteristics. However, the anti-swirl injection balance sleeve with 30 degree aggravates the vibration characteristics. In the standpoint of leakage performance, both anti-swirl injection balance sleeves show the better result than the original balance sleeve.
