Lubrication-leakage Coordination Optimization of Mechanical Seals with Textured Surface

LI Kun; GAO Yunlong; LI Xiaoying; SHI Kaibin; DAI Songjie; ZHANG Hui

doi:10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2026.13.021

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Surface Technology ›› 2026, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (13) : 242-254. DOI: 10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2026.13.021

Friction, Wear and Lubrication

Lubrication-leakage Coordination Optimization of Mechanical Seals with Textured Surface

LI Kun¹, GAO Yunlong¹, LI Xiaoying², SHI Kaibin², DAI Songjie², ZHANG Hui^2,*

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Abstract

Mechanical seals are indispensable components in modern fluid machinery systems, where their reliability and operational stability are of paramount importance, particularly in demanding application fields such as aerospace, petrochemicals, and advanced manufacturing. The primary function of mechanical seals is to prevent fluid leakage while ensuring adequate lubrication between the rotating and stationary rings at the sealing interface. However, an inherent design paradox still exists. Namely, improving lubrication by generating a thicker hydrodynamic fluid film often exacerbates leakage, whereas enhancing sealing tightness typically sacrifices lubrication quality and increases friction. Resolving this trade-off between lubrication and leakage is of critical significance for prolonging the service life of seals. With focuses on typical mechanical seal faces textured with circular dimples, this study proposes a coordinated design and optimization strategy that integrates hydrodynamic mechanisms with an intelligent algorithm. By establishing a hydrodynamic lubrication model based on the Reynolds equation, the hydrodynamic effect induced by micro-scale surface textures is accurately characterized. A genetic algorithm is employed to optimize the spatial distribution of the circular dimples on the seal face. To reduce the computational cost, the seal face is discretized into a one-twelfth sector model, and the presence or absence of a dimple at the grid nodes is encoded into binary genes. A multi-objective function is constructed by introducing a tunable weighting coefficient k_p, achieving dynamic tuning between the enhancement of load-carrying capacity and the suppression of leakage. Optimization results indicate that the optimal distribution scheme is achieved at k_p= 0.5, a texture depth of 5 µm, and a texture periodic angle of 30°. Under these optimal conditions, the fluid film load-carrying capacity of the optimized surface is enhanced by 216.9%, and the friction coefficient is reduced by 58.3% compared with the untextured smooth surface. Simultaneously, its leakage rate is drastically decreased by 75.9% compared with a fully textured configuration. Parametric analysis further reveals that excessively shallow textures fail to form effective micro-hydrodynamic converging wedges, thus providing insufficient hydrodynamic support, whereas excessively deep textures exacerbate flow losses and leakage. Adjusting the k_p value flexibly guides the optimization algorithm to shift its objective focus between leakage control and load-carrying capacity enhancement. To validate the reliability of the numerical simulations, test specimens featuring both the optimized and reference texture distributions are fabricated using femtosecond laser micromachining technology. Tribological experiments are conducted on a customized test rig at a rotational speed of 8 000 r/min and a radial load of 170 N to measure the friction torque and leakage rate of the system. The experimental results demonstrate excellent agreement with the simulation predictions. Notably, compared with the fully textured configuration, the optimized textured specimen exhibits a 77.67% reduction in leakage rate alongside a significant decrease in friction torque. This fully substantiates the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical method and its robustness under complex operating conditions. In conclusion, this study provides an experimentally validated methodological framework for balancing lubrication and sealing performance in mechanical seals. Furthermore, the concept of integrating hydrodynamic modeling with intelligent optimization offers a generalizable design paradigm for resolving issues in other tribological systems characterized by strongly coupled and mutually constraining performance demands.

Key words

mechanical seal / surface texture / leakage performance / lubrication performance / coordinated optimization

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LI Kun, GAO Yunlong, LI Xiaoying, SHI Kaibin, DAI Songjie, ZHANG Hui. Lubrication-leakage Coordination Optimization of Mechanical Seals with Textured Surface[J]. Surface Technology. 2026, 55(13): 242-254

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Funding

General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (525752288); Horizontal Scientific Research Project of University-Enterprise Cooperation ((2024) 224JS-0161)