HydroAire’s new facility, located at 1126 West 40th Street, has 46,000 square feet dedicated to pump aftermarket services. In addition to large machining equipment and 82 tons of crane capacity, the new facility has a 5000 HP Pump Performance Test Lab, which is the culmination of a two-year effort to bring the best and most comprehensive range of pump services to the pump aftermarket.
On Wednesday and Thursday, September 29th and 30th, 2010, HydroAire proudly unveiled its brand new service center and Test Lab at a festive Open House attended by hundreds of customers, dignitaries, neighbors, and friends. In addition to music, refreshments, and a slideshow on the history of HydroAire, the Open House included guided tours of the new repair facility and Test Lab by HydroAire’s engineers, mechanics, and executives. HydroAire Executive Vice President Jay Shah stated “We’re pleased to open this state-of-the-art facility in order to better serve our customers in the Greater Midwest area – customers in businesses such as power plants, refineries, the oil and gas industry, and the steel industry.” Continue reading →
Written by: Kwa Soo Teck, Phu My 3 Power Station (Vietnam), & Chandra Verma, Hydro Australia
Publisher: Pumps & Systems / September, 2011
Phu My 3 BOT Power Station, a Vietnamese power station using combined cycle gas turbine technology and operating at 749 megawatt capacity, had been experiencing some problems with their vertical pumps. The station asked Hydro Australia to assess the damage and assist with a solution.
The power plant in Vietnam
The vertical pumps were used for the circulating water system. The impeller material was a super duplex and the product being pumped was sea water. Over a period of three years, Phu My 3 had experienced catastrophic failures with the impellers and were unsure of the cause. The first pump was installed in Sept 2003 and the first blade failed in September 2008; the second failure occurred in Sept 2009 and a third failure occurred in June 2010.
On viewing the damaged impellers, which weigh 850 kilograms, it was obvious the quality was poor. The first step in the process was to send over an engineer with a Romer Arm, a 3D coordinate measuring instrument, to reverse engineer the impeller. This data could be used to analyse the existing impeller design.
Hydro South is pleased to announce their expansion into a 27,000 sq. ft. facility located in the northeast sector of the Greater Atlanta area. Hydro South’s new facility provides increased capacity for high quality, rapid response pump aftermarket services. Having joined the Hydro Companies as President of Hydro South in 2009, Sam Zingales says, “We’re very excited about our continued growth and enhanced capability.” The new building also features a training room where Hydro South plans to conduct a variety of pump training courses to serve the needs and concerns of the aftermarket pump user.
Written by: Jeff Johnson, Hydro, and Bill Rademacher, BP
Publisher: Pumps & Systems / April, 2011
A refinery’s vertical pump passes the test, verifying its performance before installation.
The rotating equipment engineers at BP’s Whiting Refinery in Indiana approached the support team at a pump service center in Chicago to discuss testing its rebuilt vertical turbine pump in the center’s new 5,000-horsepower test lab. Their pump, a Johnston 40 GMC pump, is one of four pumps used for the refinery’s rainwater drainage and process sewer system. This pump is the first pump in line and has a diffuser built onto the suction bell to direct flow into the pump.
Two other pumps are in line behind this pump and a fourth pump is to the side. All are mounted in a large concrete channel system. BP had implemented a specially designed suction strainer on this pump to minimize potential sump vortexes from entering the pump through the suction side of the impeller.
Hydro’s 5000 HP Test Lab in Chicago, IL
This vertical pump had been rebuilt and modified by trimming the impeller and opening the inlet diameter (ID) of the suction bell to improve the flow path characteristics into the impeller eye opening. The refinery wanted verification that the modifications made to the pump resulted in the calculated decreases in horsepower and NPSH required. The goal of the tests, as defined by the refinery, was to determine the operating characteristics, including head (total discharge head—TDH), flow and horsepower, as well as the minimum submergence level of the pump so it could adjust its operating set points and submergence level alarms to avoid cavitation damage.
As the pump service center maintains an “open door” policy, several individuals from the refinery visited the test lab over a two-day period to observe the testing process, which proved to be an educational experience.
Johnston 40 GMC vertical pump on the test stand
The Performance Test
Because BP provided the 1,000-horsepower pump motor, the service center engineers were able to set up both the vertical pump and the motor in the test lab. Using this set-up, the service center engineers would be able to help BP obtain an accurate understanding of how their pump would perform in the field.
The service center engineers conducted the performance test and used a validation program to calculate the efficiency using data inputs such as flow, horsepower, barometric pressure, suction level, discharge pressure, temperature and specific gravity of the water, diameters of the piping system and the location of discharge collection points.
The pump’s best efficiency point (BEP) was proved at just under 18,000 gallons per minute, at about 130 feet of head, using about 750 horsepower. Proving the BEP of its pump will enable BP to determine how it should operate the pump most efficiently in the field.
The Minimum Submergence Level
The service center engineers performed a submergence test to show BP where its low sump levels should be set. Cavitation was anticipated at a depth of 39 inches and the service center engineers were able to show the pump’s performance at its lowest submergence point before cavitation could occur, which was 42 inches. The minimum submergence levels were proved so that BP could ensure the best level settings could be achieved in the field without causing damage to the pump.
Ironically, the test pool turned out to be a close replication of the refinery’s sump. This enabled the service center engineers to confirm BP’s suction strainer had been effectively designed. The witnesses to the test could visually see how the suction strainer sheared vortexes that had developed in the sump at low submergence levels.
Written by: Ron White & Ben Roberson, HydroAire Inc.
Publisher: Pumps & Systems / February, 2011
A “temporary” repair results in five years of service.
Five years ago, an engineered pump service center in the Midwest received a call from a large municipal sanitary district. One of the company’s four submersible pumps had tripped the overloads. This 890-rpm unit operated on variable frequency drives that adjusted the motor speed to match the fluid inflow. Once it had been reset, the 290-horsepower, 42-inch diameter axial flow pump exhibited significant vibration before failing. The pump was removed and sent to the service center where it was cleaned, disassembled and inspected by a team of skilled professionals dedicated to repairing submersible pumps.
Figure 1. 290-horsepower submersible pump upon arrival at the service center
The Assessment
The initial inspection revealed that a large chunk of concrete debris from nearby sewer construction caused the submersible pump to fail. The inspection also showed that the pump had several problems:
A section of the trailing edge of one of the impeller vanes was broken.
The rotating ring was missing.
The impeller hub and lower mechanical seal had cracked and caused damage to the shaft keyway.
Figure 2. The cracked impeller hub
When the municipality inquired about replacement parts from the OEM, delivery was estimated at a 12- to 14-week turnaround time on a new impeller from Europe. The municipality could not afford to be without the pump for an extended period of time. Having a great deal of experience with submersible pumps, the dedicated submersible repair division proposed a temporary solution to get the pump repaired and back into service until the municipality could obtain a new impeller from the OEM.
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Hydro South is pleased to announce their expansion into a 27,000 sq. ft. facility located in the northeast sector of the Greater Atlanta area. Hydro South’s new facility provides increased capacity for high quality, rapid response pump aftermarket services. Having joined the Hydro Companies as President of Hydro South in 2009, Sam Zingales says, “We’re very excited about our continued growth and enhanced capability.” The new building also features a training room where Hydro South plans to conduct a variety of pump training courses to serve the needs and concerns of the aftermarket pump user.
