Heat Dissipation from

Piston-Rod Sealing Systems

Different concepts with consideration of the API 618

N. Feistel, G. Samland, B. Fejzuli

 N. Feistel received his degree in Mechanical Engineering (Dipl.-Ing.) from the Univer-
sity of Karlsruhe, Germany in 1987. He began his professional career as a Design
Engineer with Mannesmann Demag Foerdertechnik in Offenbach/Main, Germany.

In 1988 Mr. Feistel joined the R&D Group of Burckhardt Compression in Winterthur.
His responsibilities are now developing of oil-free sealing systems. In 2002 he gained
his Ph.D. degree at the University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, with a thesis on
the operational behavior of dry-running sealing systems in crosshead compressors.

G. Samland received his degree in aerospace engineering (Dipl.-Ing.) in 1987 from

the Technical University in Stuttgart, Germany.

He then started his professional career at the „Staatliche Materialprüfungsanstalt

Stuttgart“ where he was engaged in several research projects. In 1991 he graduated as
a Dr.-Ing. in power engineering at the Technical University in Stuttgart, Germany.

In 1991 he joined the Research & Development (R&D) group of Burckhardt Com-
pression in Switzerland. Since 1997 he is the head of the R&D department.
His main projects are in the field of finite element analysis, computational fluid
dynamics and mechatronic.

B. Fejzuli received his degree in Mechanical Engineering (Technician TS) in 1999

from the Technical Graduate School Zurich, Switzerland. He then started his pro-
fessional career at the SLM AG where he was engaged as head of process engineer-
ing (AVOR).

In 2001, he joined the Design and Manufacturing (D&M) group of Burckhardt

Compression in Switzerland. Since 2003 he is the team leader of the design
department and is responsible for the project execution of process gas compressors.

2
Heat Dissipation from Piston-Rod
Sealing Systems
Different concepts with consideration of the API 618
N. Feistel, G. Samland, B. Fejzuli

The need for cooling piston-rod sealing systems (packings) has recently been a
subject of more intense discussion. This has been accompanied by developments
of new cooling systems permitting more efficient heat dissipation. These activities
are motivated by a general susceptibility of commonly used cooling systems as
well as their poorer heat dissipation properties compared with cylinder cooling. An
analysis of these two shortcomings has led to a new configuration of cooling chan-
nels. Operators now have at their disposal a robust, reliable and easily maintainable
cooling system which also complies with the recommendations of the future, fifth
edition of API 618.

1 Introduction The plastic sealing elements preferably used today are

influenced significantly by temperature, not only in
Of late, two different trends have been evident as re- terms of physical and mechanical properties but also the
gards heat dissipation from piston-rod sealing systems tribological characteristics comprising friction and
(packings): Attempts on one hand to dispense entirely wear. A rise in the counter surface temperature notably
with liquid cooling wherever possible are accompanied increases the wear rate of the sealing elements, this in-
on the other hand by commercial introductions of new crease assuming exponential proportions in the worst
systems with supposedly improved cooling properties. case. Consequently, heat removal from the friction sur-
These efforts are geared primarily to eliminate two faces decisively influences the operating conditions and
main shortcomings of contemporary cooling systems especially the service life of piston-rod sealing systems.
for piston-rod seals: their susceptibility to leakages,
clogging etc., and their restricted heat dissipation capa- The following overview of common concepts of cooling
bility in comparison with cylinder cooling. Further- piston-rod sealing systems describes their advantages and
more, the cost-benefit ratio of cooling systems needs to disadvantages. The different conditions governing heat
be examined critically. removal from friction surfaces compared with cylinder
cooling make it possible to ascertain the performance
The guidelines formulated in API 618 /2/ as regards the limits of such cooling systems. These findings, especially
design of cooling systems for piston-rod seals are inten- as regards susceptibility of systems currently in use, have
ded, in particular, to ensure the operational reliability of led to a new configuration of the cooling channels. The
the latter. The upcoming, fifth edition will contain yet performance of the resultant robust, reliable and easily
stricter versions of these guidelines. API 618 also stipu- maintainable cooling system for piston-rod seals is to
lates criteria when to use a cooling for dry-running and be compared with that of common designs.
oil-lubricated piston-rod sealing systems.

3
 2 Designs and applications of various 2.2.1 Cooling jacket
systems for dissipating heat from piston-
rod seals A technically very simple method of heat removal by
means of a fluid is provided by a cooling jacket which
2.1 Uncooled piston-rod sealing systems surrounds all packing cups of the sealing system and
whose coolant inlets and outlets are usually directly
The basic question arising during the design of a piston- connected to the cylinder cooling (Fig. 1). The small
rod sealing system is whether or not to use liquid cool- number of gastight sealing elements over which the
ing. In the case of dry-running piston-rod sealing systems pressure difference is distributed results in a sealing
comprising non-metallic sealing elements, API 618 rec- system of widely differing load zones, the maximum
ommends liquid cooling from a pressure of 1.7 MPa values frequently occurring at the packing boundaries.
onward. Below this pressure, piston-rod seals should at One disadvantage of heat dissipation via a cooling
least provide for cooling. jacket is that its design does not ensure a directional
flow, supplying an adequate quantity of coolant to
Tests have shown that cooling might indeed be necessary zones subjected to high thermal loads. A problem simi-
below a pressure of 1.7 MPa /3/. Depending on its design, lar in principle was revealed by theoretical investiga-
a dry-running sealing system can generate critically high tions of heat dissipation from the cylinder /5/.
frictional powers especially at high average piston velo-
cities, so that cooling might be needed to ensure reliable Another disadvantage of this heat dissipation concept
operation and maximize service life. results from the additionally necessary heat transfer
from the packing cups to the cooled sleeve. Depending
However, the additional requirement for an upgrade to a on design complexity, a small gap also needs to be over-
cooling system can hinder an optimization of uncooled come here by means of free convection, which impairs
piston-rod sealing systems, their design having been heat dissipation to a correspondingly high degree. Con-
focused on a minimization of heat transfer resistance. sequently, heat dissipation via cooling jackets is
Of special importance here is a complete avoidance of restricted almost entirely to oil-lubricated piston-rod
any gaps and a use of materials possessing a high ther- seals or to dry-running packings subjected to low load
mal conductivity. At the same time, an attempt is made
to minimize friction power by optimizing sealing ele-
ment design. A key parameter in this context is the seal-
ing elements’ axial width, whose reduction results in a
corresponding decrease in friction power without any
notable deterioration in sealing efficiency /4/.

Given otherwise identical conditions, the shorter dis-

tance to the heat sink permits a cooled sealing system to
achieve more favourable thermal conditions for sealing
elements compared with an uncooled system. Whether
the complexity this entails is justified needs to be decided
individually.

2.2 Cooled piston-rod sealing systems

Whereas piston-rod seals subjected to low loads may be

able to dispense with a cooling system in some cases,
high load parameters in the form of large pressure differ-
ences and/or high average piston velocities need cool-
ing to ensure reliable operation coupled with adequately
long service life. Some typical concepts of cooling pis-
ton-rod sealing systems are presented in the following.

Fig. 1: Piston-rod sealing system with heat dissipation via a

cooling jacket surrounding the packing cups

4
parameters. Advantages of this design are its simple O-rings permitting coolant to enter the sealing element
design and very low risk of coolant leakage into the chambers or gas to leak into the coolant channels must
sealing element chambers. be regarded as a disadvantage of this cooling channel
arrangement. Accordingly, the fourth edition of API 618
approves O-rings surrounding the piston-rod only from
2.2.2 Packing cup with open cooling channel a pressure of 13.5 MPa onward. The upcoming fifth edi-
tion will advise entirely against a use of circumferential
In this heat dissipation concept, the packing cups are O-rings. A confined arrangement of such rings in a
furnished with a ring-shaped cooling channel, each suc- pressure-balanced environment will continue to be per-
cessive cup closing one side of the channel (Fig. 2). The missible only for axial connecting channels (for a better
coolant is supplied by an axial bore and leaves the ring- overview, these components are not shown in the follow-
shaped channel after flowing around the piston-rod via ing illustrations).
an additional connecting channel to enter the next pack-
ing cup. In this manner, the coolant flows through all
packing cups at a constant, clearly definable flow rate, 2.2.3 Packing cup with totally enclosed cooling
but alternately in clockwise and anti-clockwise direc- channel
tions (Fig. 6).
For dry-running packings at pressures of 1.7 MPa or
One advantage of this cooling channel configuration is more and oil-lubricated designs at pressures of 3.5 MPa
its easy accessibility for the purpose of cleaning (refer or more, API 618 recommends liquid-cooled packing
to 3.2). Furthermore, the packing cups can be made cups with totally enclosed cooling channels. To improve
very narrow in the axial direction, thus permitting a the cooling efficiency, the cooling channels are usually
correspondingly large number of sealing elements to be integrated directly into the web of the packing cup,
integrated over the total length of the sealing system. right between the sealing elements in each case, in or-
Generally, the open side of the cooling channel is sealed der to minimize the heat transport distance (Fig. 3).
by means of two O-rings surrounding the piston-rod.
The latent risk of damaged, wrongly inserted or missing

Fig. 2: Piston-rod sealing system with heat dissipation by Fig. 3: Piston-rod sealing system with heat dissipation via
means of packing cups with „open“ cooling channels packing cups with totally enclosed cooling channels

5
 Compared with the previously described variant involv- piston-rod via the leakage gas to the metallic packing
ing open cooling channels, however, integration into the cups, the leakage rate playing an important role here.
packing cup web can result in a larger axial dimension The limitations imposed on the cooling of a piston-rod
of the packing cups (Fig. 4), possibly necessitating at sealing system by indirect heat dissipation have already
least an elimination of a sealing element over the total been investigated in /1/ by means of a theoretical model
length of the system. The outer edge of the packing for calculating sliding surface temperatures. Variations
cups in some designs is equipped with screw plugs al- in the temperature difference between the sealing ele-
lowing the channels to be cleaned. In the case of the ments and chamber wall do not significantly influence
more widespread designs without cleaning apertures, the temperature of the friction surfaces.
the cooling channels are very awkward to maintain.

Piston rod Piston rod Piston rod

Cooling channel Cooling channel Coolant Coolant

Q
Q

l ax
lax

Packing cup Packing cup Cylinder wall Piston Packing cup

Fig. 4: Open (left) and closed configuration of cooling channels Fig. 5: Differences in heat transport from the sealing elements’
in the packing cup and the resulting influence on the axial di- friction surfaces to the coolant: directly in the cylinder (left)
mension lax and indirectly in the piston-rod sealing system

3 Efficiency and shortcomings of cooling Consequently, measures to improve the packing cup
systems for piston-rod seals region have only a very negligible effect on the overall
heat transfer efficiency. Accelerating flow or making
3.1 Limitations of heat dissipation from a piston-rod use of turbulence mechanisms, for example, mainly
sealing system serves to just increase the friction losses of the coolant.
However, API 618 specifies a maximum permissible
In the cylinder, friction heat is transferred from the seal- coolant pressure drop through the packing case of only
ing surfaces of the piston rings to the cooling water 0.17 MPa. The original goal, i.e. a notable reduction in
directly via the cylinder wall which has a high thermal the temperature of the friction surfaces, is not achieved
conductivity. To achieve comparably good conditions with such measures. Nor were tests conducted with dif-
for the sealing elements of a piston-rod sealing system, ferent flow rates of cooling water able to reveal any fur-
the cooling channels should be placed directly into the ther drop in piston-rod temperature above a critical
piston-rod. As described previously, however, these minimum value /3/.
channels are at best integrated in the packing cups. The
heat conductivity of roughly 0.5 W/mK of plastic mate-
rials - such as a typical PTFE, filled with carbon/graph- 3.2 Shortcomings of contemporary cooling systems
ite - commonly used for sealing and rider rings reveals for piston-rod seals
that heat conductivity cannot play a major role in heat
dissipation. In contrast to the conditions prevailing in a Even before the compressor is started, liquid cooling
cylinder, heat in a piston-rod sealing system is accord- can pose considerable problems if faulty assembly en-
ingly transferred indirectly from the friction surfaces to ables coolant to penetrate into the sealing element
the cooling channels: First to the piston-rod, then by chambers. Following contact with the coolant, at least
means of convection to the metallic packing cups and dry-running sealing elements no longer guarantee
from there to the coolant (Fig. 5). proper functionality, making their use inadvisable. This
problem is compounded by elaborate cleaning required
The bottleneck forming part of the overall heat transfer in the region of the sealing element chambers and leak-
resistance from the friction surfaces to the cooling age gas piping. Particularly sensitive to this type of
channels comprises convective heat transfer from the damage are packing cups with open cooling channels if,

6
during the assembly of the packing, O-rings were either nels‘ condition is immediately apparent during servic-
left out or damaged. ing and any required cleaning can be carried out rela-
tively easily.
During operation, the gas pressure is normally higher
than the coolant pressure. Especially in the case of pack-
ing cups with open cooling channels, negligent assem- 4 The concept of longitudinal cooling
bly can therefore cause process gas to enter the cooling
system. If a closed cooling circuit has been employed, Compared with the cylinder, indirect heat transfer via
leakages of flammable, explosive or toxic gases can the piston-rod on the one hand limits the efficiency of
pose problems. Special attention needs to be paid here heat dissipation from the sealing elements’ friction sur-
to piston-rod sealing systems designed to handle high faces, and on the other hand does not allow the piston-
pressure differences in hydrogen compressors. rod temperature to be reduced significantly through
improvements to the packing cup region. Accordingly,
Especially dry-running piston-rod seals subjected to developments in piston-rod sealing systems should be
high loads depend on a perfectly functioning cooling geared primarily toward eliminating the fault suscepti-
system in spite of the latter‘s limited efficiency. How- bility of the cooling systems. One important boundary
ever, the coolant employed here is often of low quality condition here is not to fall short of the efficiency which
and purity, use sometimes even being made of perfunc- can be achieved by cooling systems commonly used
torily cleaned river water. Furthermore, operation may today. Finally, the recommendations of the future, fifth
result in a deposition of contaminations, lime etc. in the edition of API 618 need to be considered as well.
channels, thus gradually impairing heat dissipation and
ultimately leading to a thermal failure of the sealing These objectives were achieved through a new configu-
system. Compared with packing cups possessing a ration of the cooling channels in the longitudinal direc-
closed cooling channel, the design with an open cooling tion, parallel to the piston-rod, as opposed to the com-
channel here proves advantageous: The cooling chan- monly employed circular flow around each individual

Fig. 6: Conventional flow through a piston-rod sealing system (left) compared with the longitudinal channels of the new cooling
system (right)

packing cup. Tangential bores in the two packing cups

at the ends of the sealing system divert the flow in the
circumferential direction, permitting a reversal of the
coolant at either end. This alternation continues until
the entire piston-rod has been enclosed (Fig. 6 and 7).

The spaces holding gas are sealed by means of a defined

metallic ring-shaped surface directly adjoining the seal-
ing element chambers. Optimization of this surface
achieves a very tight seal, making it possible to dispense
with an O-ring surrounding the piston-rod, as required by
API 618. If, nevertheless, small leakages of gas should
occur, the pressure-balanced region adjoining the sealing
Fig. 7: Piston-rod sealing system with heat dissipation via surface effectively prevents gas from entering the cooling
longitudinal cooling channels channels.

7
 The commonly employed, circular arrangement of cool- tests were conducted with hydrogen at a suction pres-
ing channels around the piston-rod encourages a depo- sure of 1.6 MPa, a discharge pressure of 4.0 MPa and
sition of solids, since the centrifugal forces occurring an average piston velocity of 3.19 m/s.
during deflection result in a separation of the coolant
from the soiling it contains. This problem is avoided by An infrared sensor was used to measure the piston-rod
longitudinal flow. Furthermore, the bores in the packing temperature during operation /3/. One problem posed
cups can be inspected very easily for soiling and cleaned by such comparative tests is that the large number of
without any trouble if necessary. The tangential channels variables influencing the piston-rod temperature makes
for diverting the flow are sealed by means of screw it very difficult to achieve similar experimental condi-
plugs which also permit easy inspection and cleaning. tions. Gas leakages through the sealing system play a
This offers operators an API 618-compliant, reliable very influential role here. Fig. 8 shows the piston-rod
and easily maintainable cooling system for piston-rod temperatures and gas leakages (measured in standard
seals. Table 1 lists the properties of the new longitudinal cubic meters per hour) ascertained for the new longitu-
cooling system compared with those of some other dinal cooling system at a cooling-water flow rate of 150
cooling systems commonly used today. l/h. These temperature values comprise averages of the

Open cooling Enclosed Longitudinal

Cooling jacket
channel cooling channel cooling
O-Rings required that span the piston rod no yes no no
Gas leaking into the distance piece possible no possible possible
Gas leaking into the coolant no possible no no
Coolant leaking into the sealing element chambers no possible no no
Risk of clogging low moderate high low
Axial dimension of packing cup low low large low

Table 1: Properties of the new longitudinal cooling system compared with those of some other cooling systems commonly used today

5 Investigation of the efficiency of different 90 1.50

cooling systems 88
Piston-rod temperature
1.45
Leakage
As already mentioned, the previously described advan- 86 1.40
tages of the new, longitudinal-flow cooling system may 84 1.35
Temperature [°C]

Leakage [scm/h]
not reduce heat dissipation efficiency. Consequently, the
new system‘s performance needed to be evaluated in 82 1.30
comparison with two widespread designs involving 80 1.25
open and enclosed cooling channels. The temperature of
the piston-rod served as a criterion for rating efficiency. 78 1.20
76 1.15
The dry-running piston-rod sealing system used for
these tests consisted of a throttle ring and five polymer- 74 1.10
blend sealing elements of the step bridge design com- 72 1.05
bined with a three-piece radially cut cover ring. The
70 1.00
sealing-ring pairs with an axial dimension of 14 mm 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
were inserted - together with an anti-extrusion ring Time [hours]
made of modified PEEK - into chambers possessing an
axial dimension of 18 mm in all the investigated cool-
Fig. 8: Influence of gas leakage on piston-rod temperature
ing systems. The packing cups with open channels as
well as those of the longitudinal-flow cooling system
each had an axial dimension of 30 mm. However, for
the packing cups with totally enclosed cooling chan- temperature distribution along the stroke of 160 mm /3/.
nels, the integration of the channels into the stem en- Clearly evident is a drop in temperature as the leakage
tailed an increase in the axial dimension to 36 mm. The rate increases.

8
Since the leakage values were not constant during the 90
three comparative tests, a decision was made to repre- Open channels
88
sent the piston-rod temperature as a function of the Enclosed channels
leakage rate. For the three examined cooling systems, 86 Longitudinal channels
Fig. 9 shows the piston-rod temperatures measured at a
84
cooling-water flow rate of 150 l/h at intervals of 5 min-

Temperature [°C]
utes over a test period of 70 hours in each case. All 82
measured values are located within a temperature band-
width of roughly 7 K, the absolute values decreasing 80
with the leakage rate. The variations in temperature 78
clearly indicate that apart from the leakage rate, other
factors such as the running-in period and the pressure 76
distribution inside the sealing system also exert a major
74
influence on the piston-rod temperature. However, none
of the three cooling systems turned out to have any excep- 72
tional advantage. In particular, no clear advantage was 1.00 1.10 1.20 1.30 1.40 1.50 1.60
revealed by the design comprising closed cooling chan- 1.05 1.15 1.25 1.35 1.45 1.55
nels integrated directly in the packing cup web. Had the Leakage [scm/h]
overall length of the sealing system been limited to 150
mm, the large axial dimension of their packing cups Fig. 9: Piston-rod temperature as a function of gas leakage rate
would only have permitted a use of four sealing ele- for packing cups with open and enclosed cooling channels and
the new longitudinal-flow variant
ments. However, since an integration of cooling chan-
nels into the packing cup web does not improve piston-
rod temperature, the sealing system‘s service life would
be shortened in comparison with the remaining two
cooling systems.

6 Summary
The highest resistance arising during heat transfer from
the friction surfaces to the cooling channels is offered
by convective heat transfer from the piston-rod via the
leakage gas to the metallic packing cups. Measures to
improve the packing cup region accordingly have a very
negligible effect on overall heat transfer efficiency.
Therefore, development activities should be geared pri-
marily toward eliminating the fault susceptibility of
systems for cooling piston-rod seals. Important criteria
here are an avoidance of gas and coolant leakages, min-
imization of the risk of clogging and maximization of
accessibility for the purpose of inspecting and cleaning
the cooling channels.

These objectives have been achieved through a new

configuration of the cooling channels in the longitudinal
direction, parallel to the piston-rod, as opposed to the
commonly employed ring-shaped flow around the indi-
vidual packing cups. Operators now have at their dis-
posal a robust, reliable and easily maintainable cooling
system which also complies with the recommendations
of the future, fifth edition of API 618. Comparative tests
with cooling systems commonly used today have shown
that these advantages are not accompanied by any drops
in heat transfer efficiency.

9
 Notation
PTFE polytetrafluoroethylene
PEEK polyetheretherketone
lax axial dimension of the packing cup
.
Q heat flow

References
[1] Heinrichs, K.; Strümke, M.:
Berechnung der Gleitflächentemperatur in
trockenlaufenden Kolbenstangendichtungen
Wiss. Z. Techn. Hochsch. Magdeburg 28, 1984,
Heft 4, S. 86 - 89

[2] American Petroleum Institute

Reciprocating Compressors for General
Refinery Services
API Standard 618, Fourth Edition
Washington, D.C. 20 005, June 1995

[3] Feistel, N.:

Bestimmung der Kolbenstangen-Oberflächen-
temperatur eines trocken laufenden
Kreuzkopfkompressors
Industriepumpen + Kompressoren 3, 2001,
S. 166 - 172

[4] Feistel, N.:

Beitrag zum Betriebsverhalten trocken
laufender Dichtsysteme zur Abdichtung der Ar-
beitsräume von Kreuzkopfkompressoren
Dissertation Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 2002

[5] Samland, G.; Retz, N.:

Thermal and structural analysis of reciprocat-
ing compressor cylinder
3rd EFRC-Conference, Vienna, Austria, 2003,
S. 245 - 254

10
11
 Milestones of our Company History
1834 Sulzer was founded 1998 First hermetically sealed, oil-free high-
1844 Engineering works Burckhardt pressure compressor package for
established in Basel hydrogen
1935 First labyrinth piston compressor (Laby®) 1999 World’s most powerful hyper compressor
1940 First Laby® for oxygen with 23’500 kW
1951 First hyper compressor for ldPE produc- 2000 Consolidation of all business activities in
tion at 1500 bar Winterthur; manufacturing facilities and
1971 First Laby® for LNG boil-off at offices in Basel closed-down
minus 160 °C 2002 Legal independence through a
1982 Merger of Sulzer and Burckhardt management buy-out, Sulzer-Burckhardt
piston compressor businesses to Engineering Works Ltd. becomes
form Sulzer-Burckhardt Engineering Burckhardt Compression AG
Works Ltd.
1982 First Laby® for IldPE and PP

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