A Case Study of Vibration in Positive Displacement Pump Systems

Case StudyPositive displacement pump systems can experience high piping vibrations. System vibration can have many root causes- including underdamped fluid pulsations, mechanical resonance, and poor skid design. This case study shows the mechanical and acoustic assessment of a reciprocating pumping system which had multiple vibration induced failures. Poor support stiffness, coupled with inadequate pulsation dampener performance resulted in high amplitude piping vibration- requiring both mechanical and acoustic analyses. Collected field pulsation and vibration data are presented, along with follow-up acoustic and finite element modeling results to showcase a solution to pulsation induced vibration in this particular pump system