Date of Award

2022

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Dr. Bahram Nassersharif

Second Advisor

TA’s: Ash, Hojat

Abstract

The Magnetic Seal Corporation has approached Team 17 to develop a seal design for the emerging electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) market. The existing MagSeal design is over-engineered and too costly to produce for the targeted market. The objectives are to design a seal that fits the designated size parameters and can withstand high rotational speeds, temperatures, and maintain a desired constant face pressure. Optimizing cost efficiency, cutting back on expensive materials and altering the current design is how this team will be successful. To accomplish this, the current MagSeal designs were thoroughly investigated and researched, and many patent searches were conducted to gather ideas of the current world of spring and magnetic seals. Team 17 generated a total one hundred and twenty design concepts that incorporate new features with these goals in mind. From the one hundred and twenty design concepts, individual and team pugh analysis were completed to narrow the concept ideas down to a final three. Multiple team meetings and discussions with the sponsor allowed Team 17 to come up with a final design that combined ideas from the top three, and even some of the designs that didn't make it. This design was drawn, sized, built and tested.

This design follows a similar structure to the Model 30 MagSeal design, which was created roughly 60 years ago. It has two main parts. The rotor touches the oil side and the stator touches the ambient air side . The rotor consists of the seal case and a seal ring. This design contains a seal case made of 440c steel and a seal ring made of Carbon Graphite that acts as the primary sealing face. The rotor however, has seen the removal of the o-ring in order to simplify the machining process. Unlike the current MagSeal design the stator is mostly made of 440c steel. Acting with the Carbon Graphite as the primary sealing face are the Samarium-Cobalt bullets.

Through engineering and cost analysis the design fulfills MagSeal’s requirements for the future eVTOL market. The current prototype is fully assembled and features all key aspects that were desired. Additional recommendations and testing can be carried with the use of Team 18’s project.

Comments

Team Name: Team 17, Seal Team 17

Sponsor: MAGSEAL

Sponsor Representative: Nick Daggett

Document Reference: URI-MCE-402-017-2022

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