BENEFITS OF VIBRATION ANALYSIS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF EQUIPMENT IN HLW TANKS - 12341
Vibration analyses of equipment intended for use in the Savannah River Site (SRS) radioactive liquid waste storage tanks are performed during pre-deployment testing and has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing the life-cycle costs of the equipment. Benefits of using vibration analysis to identify rotating machinery problems prior to deployment in radioactive service will be presented in this paper. Problems encountered at SRS and actions to correct or lessen the severity of the problem are discussed. In short, multi-million dollar cost saving have been realized at SRS as a direct result of vibration analysis on existing equipment. Vibration analysis of equipment prior to installation can potentially reduce inservice failures, and increases reliability. High-level radioactive waste is currently stored in underground carbon steel waste tanks at the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Savannah River Site and at the Hanford Site, WA. Various types of rotating machinery (pumps and separations equipment) are used to manage and retrieve the tank contents. Installation, maintenance, and repair of these pumps and other equipment are expensive. In fact, costs to remove and replace a single pump can be as high as a half million dollars due to requirements for radioactive containment. Problems that lead to in-service maintenance and/or equipment replacement can quickly exceed the initial investment, increase radiological exposure, generate additional waste, and risk contamination of personnel and the work environment. Several different types of equipment are considered in this paper, but pumps provide an initial example for the use of vibration analysis. Long-shaft (45 foot long) and short-shaft (5-10 feet long) equipment arrangements are used for 25-350 horsepower slurry mixing and transfer pumps in the SRS HLW tanks. Each pump has a unique design, operating characteristics and associated costs, sometimes exceeding a million dollars. Vibration data are routinely collected during pre-installation tests and screened for: Critical speeds or resonance, Imbalance of rotating parts, Shaft misalignment, Fluid whirl or lubrication break down, Bearing damages, and Other component abnormalities. Examples of previous changes in operating parameters and fabrication tolerances and extension of equipment life resulting from the SRS vibration analysis program include: (1) Limiting operational speeds for some pumps to extend service life without design or part changes; (2) Modifying manufacturing methods (tightening tolerances) for impellers on slurry mixing pumps based on vibration data that indicated hydraulic imbalance; (3) Identifying rolling element mounting defects and replacing those components in pump seals before installation; and (4) Identifying the need for bearing design modification for SRS long-shaft mixing pump designs to eliminate fluid whirl and critical speeds which significantly increased the equipment service life. In addition, vibration analyses and related analyses have been used during new equipment scale-up tests to identify the need for design improvements for full-scale operation / deployment of the equipment in the full size tanks. For example, vibration analyses were recently included in the rotary micro-filtration scale-up test program at SRNL.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC09-08SR22470
- OSTI ID:
- 1032957
- Report Number(s):
- SRNL-STI-2012-00013; TRN: US1200260
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2012 Conference
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Commercial Submersible Mixing Pump For SRS Tank Waste Removal - 15223
Commercial submersible mixing pump for SRS tank waste removal - 15223
Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CARBON STEELS
CONTAINMENT
CONTAMINATION
DEFECTS
FABRICATION
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
HYDRAULICS
LIFE-CYCLE COST
LIQUID WASTES
LUBRICATION
MACHINERY
MAINTENANCE
MODIFICATIONS
RESONANCE
SERVICE LIFE
STORAGE
TANKS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES