International audienc

International audienceAbradable seals are used in aeronautical compressors to minimize the blade–casing clearance while ensuring the integrity of the mechanical parts in the invent of contact. Considering the tight clearance, in-flight blade–seal interactions may occur and have to be taken into account when designing abradable seals. The blade–seal interacting force is difficult to access but constitutes a key feature to understand the phenomena and to develop numerical models. The present paper aims to present an experimental methodology to estimate the blade–seal interacting force from indirect measurements. The methodology has been applied to a short interaction produced on a dedicated test rig in conditions representative of the full-scale configuration. The obtained force was correlated with the wear profile of the abradable seal

International audienceThe use of dynamic seals to reduce the rotor/stator dynamic clearance in jet engine compressor stages leads to a higher rubbing occurrence between each blade and the coated inside of the casing. This article describes the development of a test rig capable to investigate forces and wear at the dynamic blade/seal interaction, in conjunction with blade kinetics. Testing conditions are consistent with those of low-pressure compressor stages of jet engines: high-speed rubbing occurs between a TA6V blade substitute and an aluminium-silicon/boron nitride abradable seal. The platform is instrumented to allow a dynamic measurement of forces and displacements as well as high-speed imaging of the blade/seal interaction zone throughout the experiment. The experiments showed that the blade incursion speed and penetration depth in the abradable seal both affect the amplitude and frequency of blade vibration. The amount and severity of blade incursions into the abradable seal have an impact on seal wear type and intensity, which can in turn increase blade excitation

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