AFT Fathom Helps Flowserve Improve Reliability of a Chemical Plant Raw Brine Injection System
AFT Fathom™ Case Study
Flowserve Corporation | Raw Brine Injection System | Oil & Gas
“There had been 41 repairs on the system within five years costing
more than $1.23 million… AFT Fathom showed us the best way to
run these pumps to maintain flow and pressure [and]…to increase
reliability of the system.”
– Phil Sneeringer, Tier 1 Reliability engineer
PROBLEM
- Several pumps in parallel competed against each other hydraulically
- 41 failures within 5 years costing $1.2M in repairs
ANALYSIS
- AFT Fathom model was calibrated against field data
- Multiple scenarios exploring different pump and pressure combinations were explored
SOLUTION
- Pump operation improved from 35-50% of BEP flow to 75%
- Found an improved flow path to deliver product by closing a cross-over valve that was left open
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Problem Explained
Phil Sneeringer, Tier 1 reliability engineer at Flowserve Corporation, used AFT Fathom to perform a reliability study of a raw brine injection system consisting of five vertical pumps and five horizontal pumps. The system was used to displace product in an underground cavern storage facility at an undisclosed North American chemical plant. Prior to the study, many of the pumps were competing against each other hydraulically.
There had been 41 repairs on the system within five years costing more than $1.23 million, and the mean time between failures was 14.63 months. “Plant Operations needed adequate flow and pressure from this system to displace product in the caverns and clarifier wells at an acceptable rate to satisfy production goals,” Sneeringer said.
Tools & Analysis
The first step of the reliability study involved creating a field sketch of the system as well as piping and instrumentation diagram drawings. Sneeringer and the Tier 1 Reliability Team then collected actual field test data using wireless sensors and the customer’s in-line sensors that tied to their distributed control system. An AFT Fathom model was built and the data was used to tune the model.
Multiple scenarios were then run to test different combinations of pumps and pressures at the delivery point in order to improve the pump flow rates from 35-50% of BEP to 75%.
Solutions & Benefits
Through these simulations, Sneeringer was also able to determine a better flow path to deliver the same amount of product by closing a cross-over valve that had been left open.
“AFT Fathom showed us the best way to run these pumps to maintain flow and pressure,” Sneeringer said. “It allowed us to determine the best run combinations to increase the reliability of the system (and)… to make recommendations on hydraulic rerates to increase production in the future.”
Raw Brine Injection System Model
Horizontal pumps maintain pressure in caverns and clarifier wells