Reasons for the leakage of of slurry pump

July.15,2021

Analysis and judgment of the cause of leakage

Leakage during installation static test.
After the mechanical seal is installed and debugged, a static test is generally performed to observe the leakage. If the leakage is small, there are mostly problems with the moving or static ring seals;
When the leakage is large, it indicates that there is a problem between the dynamic and static ring friction pairs. On the basis of preliminary observation of the leakage amount and judgment of the leakage position, the manual cranking observation is performed again. If there is no obvious change in the leakage amount, there is a problem with the static and moving ring seals;
If there is a significant change in leakage during cranking, it can be concluded that there is a problem with the dynamic and static ring friction pairs;
If the leaking medium is sprayed along the axial direction, there are mostly problems with the moving ring seal. If the leaking medium is sprayed around or leaks from the water cooling hole, most of the static ring seal fails.

In addition, leakage channels can also exist at the same time, but generally there is a primary and secondary difference. As long as you observe carefully and are familiar with the structure, you will be able to make a correct judgment.

Leakage during trial operation.

After the mechanical seal for the pump undergoes static testing, the centrifugal force generated by the high-speed rotation during operation will inhibit the leakage of the medium. Therefore, the mechanical seal leakage during trial operation is basically caused by the damage of the dynamic and static ring friction pairs after the failure of the shaft and the end cover seal is eliminated. The main factors that cause the failure of the friction pair seal are:
(L) During operation, due to abnormal phenomena such as evacuation, cavitation, pressure holding, etc., a large axial force is caused to separate the contact surfaces of the moving and static rings;
(2) The compression is too large when installing the mechanical seal, causing serious wear and scratches on the end face of the friction pair;
(3) The sealing ring of the moving ring is too tight, and the spring cannot adjust the axial floating amount of the moving ring;
(4) The sealing ring of the static ring is too loose. When the moving ring floats in the axial direction, the static ring separates from the static ring seat;
(5) There are granular substances in the working medium, and the friction pair is entered during operation to detect the dynamic and static ring sealing end faces;
(6) The design and selection are wrong, the seal end face pressure is low or the seal material has a large cold shrinkage, etc. The above phenomenon often occurs during trial operation, and sometimes it can be eliminated by appropriately adjusting the static ring seat, but most of them need to be disassembled and replaced, and the seal is replaced.

Sudden leakage during normal operation.

A few of the sudden leakages of centrifugal pumps during operation are due to normal wear or have reached the service life, and most of them are caused by large changes in working conditions or improper operation and maintenance.
(1) Evacuation, cavitation, or holding pressure for a long time, resulting in damage to the seal;
(2) The actual output of the pump is too small, a large amount of media circulates in the pump, and heat accumulates, which causes the media to vaporize and cause the seal to fail;
(3) The recirculation flow is too large, causing the sediment on the bottom of the suction pipe side container (tower, kettle, tank, pool) to appear and damage the seal;
(4) For a long time outage, there is no manual cranking when restarting, and the friction pair will tear the sealing surface due to adhesion;
(5) The corrosive, polymerizable and gelling substances in the medium increase;
(6) The ambient temperature changes sharply;
(7) Frequent changes or adjustments in working conditions;
(8) Sudden power failure or shutdown due to failure, etc. If the centrifugal pump leaks suddenly during normal operation, if it cannot be found in time, it will often lead to larger accidents or losses, which must be paid attention to and effective measures must be taken.