Experimental Study on Self-restoring of Magnetic Fluid Seal with Water as a Sealing Medium

Magnetic fluid sealing tests with water as the sealing medium were conducted on a test rig established in lab. The self restoring capacity of the magnetic fluid sealing was investigated by taking into account various factors including the pressure increasing frequency, bursting times, magnetic field gradient under the sealing teeth, the number of sealing teeth on magnetic poles, the number of magnetic poles, and the restoring time. It has been found that the magnetic fluid sealing with water as the sealing medium give similar results to those observed for the sealing with gas as the medium. However, contrary to what was observed in the magnetic fluid sealing with gas as the medium, the second self restoring rate of the sealing with water as the medium is constantly lower than the first self restoring rate. It was suggested to use multi pole and multi class sealing structure and assure enough replenishment of the magnetic fluid so as to increase the self restoring capacity of magnetic fluid sealing.