FEATURE PNEUMATICS & HYDRAULICS
Pump up the volume... T
he Oak Street Intake Pump Station is a critical link in the New Orleans
water supply network. Operated by the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO), this is one of two facilities that draw water from the Mississippi river and transfer it for treatment and onward distribution to homes and businesses. Built in the 1920s, the station’s three main pumps can each deliver up to 80 million gallons (363,000 m3
) of water per day. With the pumps becoming unreliable,
and spare parts increasingly difficult to find, a multi-year program was carried out to improve the performance and resilience of the city’s water system in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by upgrading the facility and replacing the pumps. With the pump station on the National
Historic Register, all work had to be completed without modifications to the fabric of the building. To meet the requirements, Sulzer was able to provide a design with sufficient capacity that would fit in the footprint of the original units. For the project, computational fluid
dynamics software was used to create a pipework configuration that would ensure optimal flow conditions both upstream and downstream of the new pumps. Although the SMDV 1000-1030A pumps
are a standard product, the units destined for New Orleans needed to be customised to suit the requirements of the project, so
Sulzer pump experts in the U.S., Switzerland and China set about designing and building the single-stage, double suction, axially split pumps as well as their ancillary equipment. The three pumps were
manufactured at Sulzer’s plant in Dalian, China, together with the large cardan shafts necessary to take power from the motors at ground level to the pumps, which would be installed in the basement of the building. They were then shipped to Sulzer’s Portland facility in the U.S., where each unit was assembled and tested for 96 hours prior to installation. One major challenge in this process
was the need to source large 1000 HP (750kW) motors that would operate correctly using the Oak Street facility’s unusual 25Hz on-site power supply. Since most motors in the U.S. are designed around a 60Hz supply, no standard unit would provide the right combination of power and speed. The engineers, however, found a
motor design that could be wound to operate at 500rpm from a 25Hz supply, some 25% faster than the design speed of the pumps. Then they modified the impeller on each pump to enable it to deliver the required flow and head at the higher speed.
Needing new pumps for an historic pumping station in New Orleans, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO) turned to Sulzer for a customised solution
INSTALLING THE PUMPS Each Sulzer SMD 1000 - 1030 weighs 18 tons (16.3 tonnes), and the pumps and motors, as well as stands, all had to enter the Oak Street building through a 10.5ft (3.2m) square doorway.
Inside, structural concrete beams made it impossible to use a conventional motor stand design. So, Sulzer engineers in Switzerland
created a special motor stand for the project, which had to fit the original footprint, withstand the stresses imposed by the motor, and be dismantled and reassembled inside the building. The installation team also prepared for the possibility of dismantling the pumps for installation, but ultimately were able to manoeuvre the machines through the doorway using two cranes, with only half an inch of room to spare. The pumps were then tested in situ.
According to the company, the new units are expected to provide much-needed reliability improvements for a vital part of the New Orleans water infrastructure and, thanks to modern VFD technology, will also provide energy savings.
Sulzer
www.sulzer.com ENGINE-DRIVEN HYDRAULIC POWER UNITS
Neilson Hydraulics & Engineering has expanded its range of engine-driven hydraulic power units to incorporate Hatz innovative silent pack engines. There are currently three units in the
range, incorporating medium and high pressure units, alongside their hydrostatic closed loop system. The medium pressure
unit offers a maximum pressure of up to 280bar, while the high pressure and hydrostatic sets rise to a significant 420bar. These are powered by the latest Hatz silent pack, 2-cylinder, 3-cylinder and 4-cylinder, diesel engines. Budget and mid- range units, powered by an electric motor, are also available.
Neilson Hydraulics & Engineering
www.neilson-hydraulics.co.uk
22 MARCH 2021 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS SOLENOID VALVES HELP REDUCE MACHINE SIZE
New from Emerson is the ASCO Series 256/356 two- and three-way solenoid valves that support the need for OEMs to develop more compact machines and equipment without compromising on fluid control performance. Their reduced footprint helps OEMs optimise the internal layout of their
equipment. Achieving comparative pressure ratings in a smaller valve typically results in increased power consumption, but the Series 256/356 reduces energy use by as much as 40%. A smaller valve can therefore be used while matching or improving on the fluid control performance of the previous version. The pressure rating of some versions of the redesigned Series 256/356 has
increased by up to 30%, and the performance of the DC voltage version is now similar to that of the AC voltage version, enabling overall system costs to be reduced by eliminating the need to convert to AC power to maximise solenoid valve performance. The Series 256/356 offers an expanded selection of body materials. They are also
dust-tight, IP67-rated and submersible in up to 1m of water. In addition, they have third-party approvals for a wide variety of industry standards, such as NSF 169 and EC 1934 for food and beverage applications. Additional features include multiple end-connector options and flexible electrical connections.
Emerson
www.emerson.com / DESIGNSOLUTIONS
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