Selbstadaptive Schwingungsdämpfung und integrierte Monitoringtechnik zur Realisierung flexibler Pumpenmodule

In the recent years, due to the ongoing globalization process, the chemical industry is facing both increasing product diversity and market fluctuations. For this reason in order to remain competitive it is crucial to increase the flexability by means of a minimized time span between product development and start of production.
To achieve this objective one approach is the modularization concept which incorporates the use of a module-based plant design. An essential requirement for succesful implementation of this concept is that process equipment, especially pumps, have to be exchangeable without affecting process conditions. Due to the pumps‘ varying operating principles varying pressure pulsation amplitudes are induced into the plant system which can lead to undesired disturbances. Hence, the need of an universal pulsation damper becomes obvious. In order to increase the economic efficiency a second aspect is the implementation of a universal condition monitoring system. This allows condition-based maintenance strategies and therefore reduced maintenance and machine downtimes.
Accordingly, the aim of this work comprises two parts. The first part deals witch the development of an innovative pulsation dampening concept which allows a self-adaptive operating mode. Depending on the pump’s operating point the flow-through pulsation damper automatically determines the precharge pressure where pulsation amplitudes are minimal.
The second aim of the present work is to evaluate the potential of torque measurement at the pump’s drive shaft as an universal condition monitoring system. Both monitoring of the pumps operating point and the identification of irregular operating conditions are investigated.