AFT Fathom Provides Critical Accuracy at Dupont

Dupont’s vast capabilities in the development and production of chemicals require extensive underlying resources. Among these are Dupont Engineering who are tasked to support the demands of Dupont’s wide-ranging activities, including a highly developed specialization in the application of pumps. It was this capability that was called upon to solve a recurring problem at Dupont’s Experimental Station.

The Experimental Station is a corporate “university” where new chemicals are developed, and safe disposal of chemicals is essential for operation. Key to this safe disposal is an incinerator where combustion breaks complex compounds down into simpler compounds that are absorbed by a caustic solution circulation system. Critical to the absorber system’s operation was a circulating pump that was continually failing.

Judy Hodgson, a Pump Consultant at Dupont Engineering, was called in to solve the Experimental Station’s problem. Judy determined that the recurring failure of the pump’s rubber lining and bearings was due to excessive operating speed. A reduction in operating speed to solve the pump failures could not, however, be allowed to create another, more serious problem: inadequate flow in the absorber system.

With no historical data available to indicate where the pump was operating, Judy modeled the caustic circulation system’s sump, circulating pump, heat exchanger, spray nozzles and interconnecting piping using AFT Fathom (see Figure 1). Knowing pumps don’t operate just at a design point, Judy performed a comprehensive analysis of the operating envelope, studying the effects of pump speed, heat exchanger fouling and liquid level.