Power Plant Centrifugal Pumps Problem Analysis and Troubleshooting By Maurice L. Adams Jr.

Power Plant Centrifugal Pumps Problem Analysis and Troubleshooting By Maurice L. Adams Jr.

Contents:

1. Pump Fluid Mechanics, Concepts, and Examples

2. Pump Performance, Terminology, and Components

3. Operating Failure Contributors

4. Pumping in Fossil Plants

5. Pumping in Nuclear Plants

6. Boiler Feed Pump Rotor Unbalance and Critical Speeds

7. Nuclear Feed Pump Cyclic Thermal Rotor Bow

8. Boiler Circulation Pump .

9. Nuclear Plant Cooling Tower Circulating Pump

10. Condensate Booster Pump Shaft Bending

11. Pressurized Water Reactor Primary Coolant and Auxiliary Feed Pumps

12. Cases from Mechanical Solutions, Inc.

Preface:

This book is comprised of three sections that provide complete background and breadth of material to meet the needs of newcomers to the field as well as experienced specialists. Its focus is on the centrifugal type pump since that is the dominant pump type employed in power plants. Other industries heavily reliant upon centrifugal pumps (e.g., ocean ship propulsion systems,

petrochemical process plants) can also benefit from this book. Section I “Primer on Centrifugal Pumps” is a group of three chapters treating centrifugal pump fundamentals (Chapter 1), performance and components (Chapter 2), and operating failures (Chapter 3). Section II “Power Plant Centrifugal Pump Applications” is composed of two chapters describing pumping in fossil plants (Chapter 4) and pumping in nuclear plants (Chapter 5). Section III “Troubleshooting Case Studies” is seven chapters detailing actual troubleshooting case studies for several power plant pump problems. These case studies are taken both from the author’s own pump troubleshooting projects as well as documented case studies from articles, conference papers, short courses, and private communications with the late Dr. ElemerMakay. Case study documentaries have also been provided by Mechanical Solutions, Inc.  Truly qualified technologists invariably acknowledge the shoulders upon which they stand. I am unusually fortunate in having worked for several expert caliber individuals during my formative 14 years of industrial employment prior to becoming a professor in 1977, especially my 4 years at

the Franklin Institute followed by my 6 years at the Westinghouse Corporate R&D Center’s Mechanics Department. I am also highly appreciative of many subsequent rich interactions with other technologists. I here acknowledge those individuals, many of whom have unfortunately passed away over the years. They were members of a now-extinct breed of giants who unfortunately have not been replicated in today’s industrial workplace environment. My work in centrifugal pumps began in the mid-1960s at WorthingtonCorporation’s Advanced Products Division (APD) in Harrison, New Jersey.

There I worked under two highly capable European-bred engineers, chief engineer Walter K. Jekat (German) and his assistant John P. Naegeli (Swiss). John Naegeli later returned to Switzerland and eventually became general manager of Sulzer’s Turbo-Compressor Division and later general manager of its Pump Division. The APD general manager was Igor Karassik, the world’s most prolific writer of centrifugal pump articles, papers, and books, and an energetic teacher on centrifugal pumps for all the recent engineering graduates at APD like me. My first assignment at APD was basically to be “thrown into the deep end” of a new turbomachinery development for the U.S. Navy that even today would be considered highly challenging. That new product was comprised of a 42,000 rpm rotor having an overhung centrifugal air compressor impeller at one end and an overhung single-stage impulse steam turbine powering the rotor from the other end, with water lubricated turbulent fluid film bearings. Worthington sold several of these units over a period of many years.