ABSTRACT
Coping with power plant pump operating problems is a way of life for plant operators. Avoidance of pump forced outages, downtime, and time between major overhauls are all top priorities for maximizing power plant availability. The shape of a centrifugal pump's head–capacity H-Q curve has a major impact on its operability. The operating problems and associated pump failures resulting from hydraulic instability and pressure pulsations are most activated when a pump is operated at flows significantly below the best efficiency flow. The hydraulic instability, pressure pulsation, and minimum recirculation flow are at the heart of the fluid dynamical phenomena that can create destructive level dynamic forces within a centrifugal pump. The three elementary dynamics/kinematics parameters are displacement, velocity, and acceleration, directly relatable to one another through elementary calculus. And these are the three vibration parameters that are regularly measured and monitored on plant operating machinery.
