Case Study
Thermo-mechanical analysis on a BB5 charge pump
Mar 19, 2025
Overview
Challenges
- Mechanical seal leakage during flushing
- Multiple failures
Results
- Changes were made to the shaft material, heating coil system, and mechanical seal allowance, as well as modulation of the fresh feed input temperature
- No more failures were experienced, and there was minimal impact on plant layout or costs
Case study details
A refinery in Italy had been using our 6x15 10-stage DDHF charge pump to process a combined feed at approximately 350°C. This kind of process pump must be warmed up by the hot-oil coil system and warming connections before starting and kept warm when in standby mode (approximately 60°C lower than the operating temperature).
During flushing, the pump had experienced mechanical seal leakage at the drive-end side, and wear patterns were observed on backstop.
We conducted a combined transient thermal and structural simulation analysis to distinguish the criticalities during warm-up procedures.
Get the full story in PDF
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