Rotary Liquid Seal Ring Air Compressor
The rotary liquid seal ring-type, illustrated in Figure Figure 5 Rotary Liquid Seal Ring Air Compressor below, features a forward inclined, open impeller, in an oblong cavity filled with liquid. As the impeller rotates, the centrifugal force causes the seal liquid to collect at the outer edge of the oblong cavity. Due to the oblong configuration of the compressor case, large longitudinal cells are created and reduced to smaller ones.
The suction port is positioned where the longitudinal cells are the largest, and for the discharge port, where they are smallest, thus causing the vapor within the cell to compress as the rotor rotates. The rotary liquid seal compressor is frequently used in specialized applications for the compression of extremely corrosive and exothermic gasses and is commonly used in commercial nuclear plants as a means of establishing initial condenser vacuum.
