Interacting force estimation during blade/seal rubs

Abradable seals are used in aeronautical compressors to minimize the blade-casing clearance while ensuring the integrity of the mechanical parts in the invent of contact. Considering the tight clearance, in-flight blade-seal interactions may occur and have to be taken into account when designing abradable seals. The blade-seal interacting force is difficult to access but constitutes a key feature to understand the phenomena and to develop numerical models. The present paper aims to present an experimental methodology to estimate the blade-seal interacting force from indirect measurements. The methodology has been applied to a short interaction produced on a dedicated test rig in conditions representative of the full-scale configuration. The obtained force was correlated with the wear profile of the abradable seal.