# US 2024/0200560 A1 · Method for identification of impeller wear and excessive wear-ring clearance in centrifugal pumps

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 2024/0200560 A1
- Document ID: US20240200560A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 18/533,797
- Filed: 2023-12-08
- Published: 2024-06-20
- Earliest claimed: 2022-12-14
- Assignees: Schneider Toshiba Inverter Europe SAS
- Applicants: Schneider Toshiba Inverter Europe SAS
- Inventors: Kamal Ejjabraoui
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20240200560A1

## CPC

- F04D 1/00: Radial-flow pumps, e.g. centrifugal pumps; Helico-centrifugal pumps (adapted for pumping specific fluids F04D7/00; priming or boosting F04D9/00)
- F04D 15/0088: {Testing machines}
- F04D 29/2205: {Conventional flow pattern}
- G01M 13/005: Sealing rings
- F04D 15/0272: {the condition being wear or a position}
- F05D 2230/72: Maintenance
- F05D 2240/307: related to the tip of a rotor blade
- F05D 2260/80: Diagnostics
- F05D 2260/821: Parameter estimation or prediction
- F05D 2270/3011: Inlet pressure
- F05D 2270/3013: Outlet pressure
- F05D 2270/3061: of the working fluid
- F05D 2270/335: Output power or torque
- F04D: NON-POSITIVE-DISPLACEMENT PUMPS (engine fuel-injection pumps F02M; ion pumps H01J41/12; electrodynamic pumps H02K44/02)
- G01M: TESTING STATIC OR DYNAMIC BALANCE OF MACHINES OR STRUCTURES; TESTING OF STRUCTURES OR APPARATUS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- F05D: INDEXING SCHEME FOR ASPECTS RELATING TO NON-POSITIVE-DISPLACEMENT MACHINES OR ENGINES, GAS-TURBINES OR JET-PROPULSION PLANTS

## Abstract

A method for determining mechanical degradation of parts of a centrifugal pump having a fluid inlet, an impeller, and a fluid outlet. The method includes calculating at least one of a wear-ring clearance effect and an impeller wear effect. The wear-ring clearance effect is calculated using measurements of an actual pump flow rate Qp and actual pump power Pwp, calculating an internal flow rate of the pump QpPwp, calculating the mechanical power PwQp that should be used if the pump worked as specified in a theoretical curve, and calculating a difference between a theoretical Head and an internal Head Hpth−HpPwp to obtain the loss of Head due to the wear-ring clearance. The impeller wear effect is calculated by measuring an actual input pressure pin, an actual output pressure pout and an actual pump power Pwp, calculating a theoretical flow rate QpPwp corresponding to the measured mechanical power Pwp, calculating a theoretical Pump Head HpPwp, calculating the actual Pump Head Hp from the actual input pressure pin, and the actual output pressure pout and a pumped fluid density, and calculating a difference between the theoretical pump head and the actual pump Head HpPwp−Hp to obtain the loss of head due to the impeller wear.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for determining mechanical degradation of parts of a centrifugal pump having a fluid inlet, an impeller and a fluid outlet, comprising:
calculating at least one of a wear-ring clearance effect and an impeller wear effect where:
calculating said wear-ring clearance effect is done through:
measuring an actual pump flow rate Op and actual pump power Pwp,
calculating an internal flow rate of the pump QpPwp through projecting said actual pump power Pwp on a theoretical Pump Mechanical power versus Pump Flow rate curve at iso mechanical power,
calculating the mechanical power PwQp that should be used if the pump worked as specified in the theoretical curve through projecting said actual pump flow rate on said theoretical Pump Mechanical Power versus Pump Flow rate curve at iso flow rate,
applying the measured flow rate Op on a theoretical Pump Head versus Pump Flow rate curve to obtain a theoretical Head Hpth,
applying the internal flow rate of the pump QpPwp on said theoretical Pump Head versus Pump Flow rate curve to obtain an internal Head HpPwp,
calculating a difference between said theoretical Head and said internal Head Hpth−HpPwp to obtain the loss of Head due to the wear-ring clearance;
and where:
calculating said impeller wear effect is done through:
measuring an actual input pressure pin, an actual output pressure pout and an actual pump power Pwp,
calculating a theoretical flow rate QpPwp corresponding to the measured mechanical power Pwp on a theoretical pump characteristic Pump Power versus Pump Flow rate curve,
projecting such theoretical flow rate QpPwp on a theoretical Pump Head versus Pump Flow rate curve at iso-pump flow rate ΔQ=0 to obtain a theoretical Pump Head HpPwp,
calculating the actual Pump Head Hp from the actual input pressure pin, and the actual output pressure pout and a pumped fluid density,
calculating a difference between said theoretical pump head and said actual pump Head HpPwp−Hp to obtain the loss of head due to the impeller wear.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1 comprising calculating a flow rate inside the pump
Q
p
pump
=
Qp
Pwp
=
Qp
+
Δ
⁢
Q
,
where ΔQ is the additional flow rate due to the increasing of the wear-ring clearance compared to the initial status of the pump that is provided by the theoretical Pump Head versus Flow rate curve, and considering that at the pump head HpPwp corresponding to the measured power and at iso-Pump Head H=Hth=HpPwp the Hydraulic efficiency being equal to 1, setting a hydraulic efficiency at:
η
HY
=
H
H
th
=
1
,
the method comprising:
calculating a mechanical efficiency:
η
m
=
P
I
P
s
=
ρ
·
g
·
Hp
Pwp
(
Q
p
+
Δ
⁢
Q
)
Pw
p
calculating a volumetric efficiency:
η
v
=
Q
p
(
Q
p
+
Δ
⁢
Q
)
and calculating the efficiency of the pump with pump wear-ring clearance impact
η
wearRing
=
η
m
×
η
HY
×
η
v
=
ρ
·
g
·
Hp
Pwp
·
Q
p
Pw
p

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The method for determining mechanical degradation of parts of a centrifugal pump according to claim 2 comprising calculating a theoretical efficiency:
η
theoretical
=
ρ
·
g
·
Hp
th
·
Qp
Pw
Qp
and calculating an impact of the Excessive wear-ring clearance on the overall pump as:
η
WearRingImpact
=
η
wearRing
-
η
theoretical
η
theoretical

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1 wherein calculating an impeller wear impact comprises at iso-pump flow rate ΔQ=0 calculating a mechanical efficiency:
η
m
=
P
I
P
s
=
ρ
·
g
·
Hp
th
·
(
Q
p
+
Δ
⁢
Q
)
Pw
Qp
=
ρ
·
g
·
Hp
th
·
Qp
Pw
Qp
and calculating the efficiency of the pump with impeller wear impact
η
impellerWear
=
η
m
×
η
HY
×
η
v
=
ρ
·
g
·
(
Hp
th
-
(
Hp
pwp
-
Hp
)
)
·
Qp
Pw
Qp
⁢
where
⁢
η
HY
=
(
Hp
th
-
(
Hp
pwp
-
Hp
)
)
Hp
th
and
a volumetric efficiency ηv is set to 1.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The method for determining mechanical degradation of parts of a centrifugal pump according to claim 4 comprising calculating the impact of the impeller wear on the overall pump wear as:
η
ImpellerWearImpact
=
η
impellerWear
-
η
theoretical
η
theoretical
⁢
where
⁢
η
theoretical
=
ρ
·
g
·
Hp
th
·
Q
p
Pw
Qp

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method for determining mechanical degradation of parts of a centrifugal pump according to claim 1 repeated from time to time to obtain a plurality of measurements of the global efficiency of the pump.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method for determining mechanical degradation of parts of a centrifugal pump according to claim 6 comprising a program designed to detect an evolution of a pump wear-ring clearance evolution through calculating said wear-ring clearance effect through measuring the initial power and flow rate of the pump at a time t0, calculating the initial Head of the pump HpPwp, calculating the initial loss of Head (Hpth−HpPwp)t0, measuring from time to time tn=tn−1+Δt with the pump in use the power and flow rate of the pump and calculating the head and loss of Head due to the wear-ring clearance, comparing the obtained wear-ring clearance effect (Hpth−HpPwp)tn at time tn with the initial Head loss at time t0 to obtain a wear-ring clearance evolution of the pump.

### Claim 8 (depends on 6)

The method for determining mechanical degradation of parts of a centrifugal pump according to claim 6 comprising identifying with said program an evolution of a pump impeller wear evolution through calculating said impeller wear effect through measuring an initial input pressure pint0, an actual output pressure poutt0 and an initial pump power Pwpt0 of the pump at a time t0, calculating the initial Head of the pump HpPwp at iso-pump flow rate ΔQ=0, calculating the initial loss of Head (HpPwp−Hp)t0, measuring from time to time tntn−1+Δt with the pump in use the input pressure pintn, Output pressure pouttn and pump power Pwptn of the pump and calculating the head and loss of Head due to the impeller wear at iso-pump flow rate ΔQ=0, comparing the obtained impeller wear (HpPwp−Hp)tn with the initial Head loss to obtain a impeller wear evolution of the pump.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method for determining mechanical degradation of parts of a centrifugal pump according to claim 1 wherein said measurements are done in real time during operation of the pump.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The method for determining degradation of a centrifugal pump according to claim 1 comprising comparing of an actual flow rate with at least one customer defined flow rate lower limit and providing a warning signal in case of detection of a flow rate lower than said lower limit.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method for determining degradation of a centrifugal pump according to claim 10 comprising calculating the impact of the degradation on the efficiency of said impeller and provision of ageing data comprising flow rate reduction and/or head reduction.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The method for determining degradation of a centrifugal pump according to claim 11 comprising calculating the impact of such degradation on the energy consumption of the pump.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The method for determining degradation of a centrifugal pump according to claim 1 comprising creating warning signals upon detection of defined wear-ring clearance and/or impeller wear for providing data for predictive maintenance.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The method for determining degradation of a centrifugal pump according to claim 1 comprising entering said theoretical Pump mechanical Power versus Flow rate curve, said theoretical Head versus Flow rate curve from the pump manufacturer as initial theoretical pump data in a calculation program.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium on which a software is stored to implement the method according to claim 1 when the software is executed by a processor.

### Claim 16 (depends on 2)

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium on which computer software is stored, the computer software comprising instructions to implement the method according to claim 2 when the software is executed by a processor.