Adaptive control system for mechanical seal assembly.

摘要

An adaptive control system (40) regulates operation of a mechanical seal assembly (25) by reacting dynami­cally to changes in seal operating conditions to provide minimal wear with minimal fluid leakage.

The disclosed "self-learning" method adapts automatically to arbitrary changes in fluid medium temperature and pressure, as well as shaft rotation speed, by detecting a limit cycle type oscillation of a seal-related variable, such as temperature (TF) of a seal face and/or fluid temperature (TC). This variable is monitored via a microcomputer-based system which identi­fies these abrupt oscillations or spikes. The control algorithm selects a particular displacement of an actu­ator (43) to modify the seal face deflection to the optimal value, and in this way attains maximum seal life while minimizing leakage.