Feasibility of Rope Seal Technology Demonstrated for an Industrial Application

As the operating temperatures of industrial systems and advanced gas turbines continue to rise, designers are facing increasingly more difficult challenges in implementing high temperature structural materials and seals to meet system performance goals. To maximize efficiency, they are reducing seal purge flows to their practical minimum and are requiring low-leakage seals to be made of temperature-resistant superalloy and ceramic materials. Seals are being designed to both seal and serve as compliant mounts, allowing for relative thermal growths between high-temperature, but brittle, primary structures and the surrounding support structures