Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Our attempts to normalize or classify water turbine hydraulic performance culminated in 1915 with the development of the specific speed concept, which was later applied to centrifugal pumps (2). Because NPSH is not included in specific speed, however, attempts continued to understand and normalize this elusive characteristic. In 1922 (1), the Thoma-Moody parameter, Sigma, was introduced and defined as: Sigma = = NPSH/H (13-1)
where H is the total head of the first stage impeller. Sigma was widely accepted and used for a number of years, but it had a significant shortcoming, since the NPSHR of a pump is relatively independent of the head produced by the pump. In 1937, three engineers at Worthington-Karassik, Wislicenus and Watson-were assigned the task of developing a better concept than Sigma. Initially working independently, they joined forces. While discussing their problem over Saturday morning coffee in Karassik's kitchen, they developed the concept of Suction Specific Speed (3).
(13-2)
S = Suction Specific Speed N = RPM of Pump Q = Pump Capacity*, GPM NPSHR = NPSH required by pump, feet *If the impeller is double suction, Q in the above equation is one-half the BEP capacity of the pump. This is a major difference from calculating specific speed, in which we use total pump capacity, whether the impeller is single suction or double suction. Normally calculated at the BEP The symbol Nss is often used in place of S for suction specific speed. The value of S for most pumps is typically between 7,000 and 15,000. The higher values are more common in higher speed, higher capacity units. (See next month's article for additional discussion of the effect of speed and capacity on S.)
S=
Figure 1. To reduce NPSHR, the impeller eye diameter is increased. Establishing a "Stable" Window of Operation
Every centrifugal pump would like to run at its BEP-always. All pump components would experience maximum life at that capacity. Seldom does a pump run at its BEP, but component life will be significantly extended if it operates within its "stable" window of capacities. To a large extent, suction specific speed indicates the size of that window. Pumps with lower values of S have larger windows.
Figure 2. Although resulting in reduced NPHR at the BEP, the large eye creates eddies and recirculation at reduced flow rates. When the vortices are strong enough to cause cavitation, the vapor bubbles collapse on the driving side, or pressure side, of the impeller vane, near the eye. If the vane twists as it enters the eye from the larger diameter, this part of the vane cannot be seen by looking directly into the eye, but must be viewed with the assistance of a small mirror.
Study by Hallam
Numerous technical papers and articles reported problems caused by suction recirculation, but none quantified the phenomenon until Hallam (5) reported in 1982 the results of a 5 year study of 480 centrifugal pumps in Amoco's Texas City refinery. Most of these pumps were in hydrocarbon services. The remainder pumped water. The average power requirement was about 150 hp and the maximum was 1,000 hp. Figure 3 shows the results of the study. The pumps were divided in groups according to their suction specific speed. The average numbers of failures/year/pump were plotted for each group. A failure was defined as any problem with the pump that required service in the refinery repair shop. The graph shows an increase in failure frequency of almost 100 percent above an S of about 11,000.
Figure 3. Failure frequency vs. suction specific speed (J.L. Hallam, [5]) The logic contained in some of the papers on suction recirculation is not totally rigorous. Most of the symptoms attributed to recirculation can be attributed to other centrifugal pump phenomena. The high S attributed to some centrifugal pumps has also been found to have been obtained by improper methods of NPSH testing. Ross (6) claims that the problem of suction recirculation has been distorted-that it simply boils down to inadequate NPSHA. Regardless of the reason for the problem-whether it is suction recirculation, improper methods of testing or just inadequate NPSHA-Hallam's paper clearly shows that a pump with a suction specific speed greater than 11,000 should be selected with caution. This finding caused a number of companies to prohibit the purchase of a pump with a suction specific speed in excess of 11,000.
Problem No. 2. Suction Specific Speed for a High Speed Multistage Waterflood Pump
A four-stage pump is operating on an offshore platform in water flooding (secondary recovery) service. Figure 4 is a redrawn copy of the performance curve provided by the pump manufacturer. The pump is equipped with a double suction, first stage impeller. Calculate the suction specific speed:
S=
= 12,000 (RPM-GPM-FT)
Would you suspect that this pump could be a problem? Yes, and it was. The first stage impeller would periodically experience cavitation-erosion on the pressure side of the vanes, throwing the rotor out of balance and causing excessive vibration.