Centrifugal pumps are used for different applications that include pressure boosting, wastewater, water supply, heating and cooling distribution and other industrial processes. This paper presents theoretical and experimental investigations of mechanical vibrations of a centrifugal pump. The flow in this pump, which induces pressure pulsations and mechanical vibrations, have been monitored. Vibration measurements and data collection (overall vibrations levels and frequency spectrum) were extracted from the system. In addition, one of the methods used to study vibration amplitudes for this pump is forced response analysis. To study and analyze the pump system, the finite element analysis software (ANSYS) was applied. Depending on the analysis performed and investigations outcomes, the system natural frequency coincides with the vane-pass frequency (VPF) hazardously. To attenuate the system’s vibration, a vibration control element was used. The vibration levels were reduced by a factor of 2 for a tuned element as obtained from a forced harmonic response analysis of the pump system with absorber. It is shown that the inserted element allows the centrifugal pump to work in a safe operating range without any interference with its operation.
The pump performance and occurrence of cavitation directly depends on different operating conditions. To cover a wide range of operation conditions for detecting cavitation in this work, investigations on the effect of various suction valve openings on cavitation in the pump were carried out. In order to analyse various levels of cavitation in different operation conditions, the effect of the decrease in the inlet suction pressure of the centrifugal pump by controlling the inlet suction valve opening was investigated using this experimental setup. Hence, the acoustic and pressure signals under different inlet valve openings and different flow rates, namely, 103, 200, 302 l/min were collected for this purpose. A detailed analysis of the results obtained from the acoustic signal was carried out to predict cavitation in the pump under different operating conditions. Also, the acoustic signal was investigated in time domain through the use of the same statistical features. The FFT technique was used to analyse the acoustic signal in the frequency domain. In addition, in this work an attempt was made to find a relationship between the cavitation and noise characteristics using the acoustic technique for identifying cavitation within a pump.
Cavitation is an essential problem that occurs in all kinds of pumps. This cavitation contributes highly towards the deterioration in the performance of the pump. In industrial applications, it is very vital to detect and decrease the effect of the cavitation in pumps. Using different techniques to analysis and diagnose cavitation leads to increase in the reliability of cavitation detection. The use of various techniques such as vibration and acoustic analyses can provide a more robust detection of cavitation within the pump. In this work therefore, focus is put on detecting and diagnosing the cavitation phenomenon within a centrifugal pump using vibration and acoustic techniques. The results obtained from vibration and acoustic signals in time and frequency domains were analysed in order to achieve better understanding regarding detection of cavitation within a pump. The effect of different operating conditions related to the cavitation was investigated in this work using different statistical features in time domain analysis (TDA). Moreover, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) technique for frequency domain analysis (FDA) was also applied. Furthermore, the comparison and evaluation system among different techniques to find an adequate technique incorporating for accuracy and to increase the reliability of detection and diagnosing different levels of cavitation within a centrifugal pump were also investigated.
This paper presents a development of a model of a set of multistage centrifugal electro pumps including two 4 stage stainless steel centrifugal pumps, each coupled to a 4 kW three-phase induction motor, connected to a hydraulic application running under two control strategies including constant speed and variable speed methods. Each pump provides 16 m3/hr flow rate and 58mwaterhead at BEP (Best Efficiency Point). Dynamicity of the model causes variations in all operational parameters of pumping system in any variation on consuming flow rate. Each electro pump has been driven with a variable frequency drive utilizing frequency control method for adjusting the rotational speed under a PID control regarding to match of pumping system operational point with the consumption point to save the energy. 83% energy saving is achieved by model in variable speed control strategy comparing to constant speed control strategy. MATLAB/SIMULINK software using ode45 solver and variable step size simulates this model.
en
pl
