USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

A Bayne Neild

John D Spargo

Hugh G Anderson

Earl R Quandt

Martha M Phillips

A leak free floating packing shaft seal is provided for a rotatable shaft d a supporting annular structure wherein the supporting annular structure has a high pressure upstream side and a low pressure downstream side. The floating seal includes an annular holder which is slidably mounted in the supporting structure for radial movement therein. A ring of packing material is mounted in a recess in the inner circumferential side of the holder. A first O-ring arrangement is mounted between the supporting structure and the upstream side of the holder for effecting a seal from the high pressure environment, and a second O-ring arrangement is mounted between the supporting structure and the downstream side of the holder. At least one passageway is provided for communicating the upstream and downstream size of the holder for balancing the pressures therebetween. With this arrangement the holder is free to undergo the radial movement without leakage and the detriment of lateral forces thereon.

Leak free floating packing shaft seal

A 'fixed' pad element of a thrust bearing having a plurality of such pads th each pad including at least one groove formed in the sidewalls of the leading and trailing edge portions of the bearing pad to cause the edge portions to be more deformable than the intermediate portion. Such edge portion may also have a lower resultant coefficient of thermal expansion than the intermediate portion such that the pad surface, when hydrodynamically and thermally loaded, assumes a convex surface profile to define a wedge shaped hydrodynamic lubricating film between the pad and the adjacent thrust member. Additional lubrication may be provided through a central lubrication passage connected to a pressurized oil supply. In an embodiment where there is a plurality of sidewall grooves, some of the grooves may have different depth and width dimensions and such plurality of grooves may be filled with materials having a lower coefficient of thermal expansion, greater deformability and/or greater compressibility than the material forming the body of the pad. In another embodiment, the bearing pad may be a composite laminated structure which includes one or more layers of materials having a lower coefficient of thermal expansion, greater deformability and/or greater compressibility than the body material wherein a greater thickness of such layer occurs adjacent the edge portions of the pad. When partially or substantially unfilled, such grooves may serve as cooling surfaces allowing additional cooling of the bearing pad.

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Severna Park, MD, United States of America

A Bayne Neild