Pump Maintenance Research Articles

A General Modeling Framework for the Long-Term Scheduling of Multiproduct Pipelines with Delivery Constraints

Common carrier pipelines are one of the most economic modes for transportation of petroleum refined products over land, especially when huge amounts of these products have to be pumped toward long-distance terminals. This paper introduces a novel Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP)-based approach for the long-term scheduling of a real world multiproduct pipeline connecting a unique refinery to several distribution centers. This approach allows consideration of multiple due dates for demands at period ends, flow rate limitation on pipeline segments, and simultaneous deliveries at distribution centers. The proposed model results in substantial reduction in pump operation and maintenance costs in comparison with the available models. Computational results and data are reported.

Terbutaline pump maintenance therapy after threatened preterm labour for reducing adverse neonatal outcomes.

After successful inhibition of threatened preterm labour women are at high risk of recurrent preterm labour. Terbutaline pump maintenance therapy has been used to reduce adverse neonatal outcomes. This review replaces an earlier Cochrane review, published in 2002, which is no longer being updated by the team. To determine the effectiveness of terbutaline pump maintenance therapy after threatened preterm labour in reducing adverse neonatal outcomes. We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's Trials Register (31 January 2014) and reference lists of retrieved studies. Randomised controlled trials comparing terbutaline pump therapy with alternative therapy, placebo, or no therapy after arrest of threatened preterm labour. Two review authors independently assessed the studies for inclusion and then extracted data as eligible for inclusion in qualitative and quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis). Four studies were included with a total of 234 women randomised. The overall methodological quality of the included studies was mixed; two studies provided very little information on study methods, there was high sample attrition in one study and in three studies the risk of performance bias was high. We found no strong evidence that terbutaline maintenance therapy offered any advantages over saline placebo or oral terbutaline maintenance therapy in reducing adverse neonatal outcomes by prolonging pregnancy among women with arrested preterm labour. The mean difference (MD) for gestational age at birth was -0.14 weeks (95% confidence interval (CI) -1.66 to 1.38) for terbutaline pump therapy compared with saline placebo pump for two trials combined. One trial reported a risk ratio (RR) of 1.17 (95% CI 0.79 to 1.73) for preterm birth (less than 37 completed weeks) and a RR of 0.97 (95% CI 0.51 to 1.84) of very preterm birth (less than 34 completed weeks) for terbutaline pump compared with saline placebo pump. We found no evidence that terbutaline pump therapy was associated with statistically significant reductions in infant respiratory distress syndrome, or neonatal intensive care unit admission compared with placebo. Compared with oral terbutaline, we found no evidence that pump therapy increased the rate of therapy continuation, or reduced the rate of infant complications or maternal hospital re-admissions. One study suggested that pump therapy resulted in significantly increased weekly cost/woman, $580 versus $12.50 (P < 0.01). No data were reported on long-term infant outcomes. We found no evidence that terbutaline pump maintenance therapy decreased adverse neonatal outcomes. Taken together with the lack of evidence of benefit, its substantial expense and the lack of information on the safety of the therapy do not support its use in the management of arrested preterm labour. Future use should only be in the context of well-conducted, adequately powered randomised controlled trials.

A confluence of new technology and the right to water: experience and potential from South Africa’s constitution and commons

South Africa's groundbreaking constitution explicitly confers a right of access to sufficient water (section 27). But the country is officially `water-stressed' and around 10 % of the population still has no access to on-site or off-site piped or tap water. It is evident that a disconnect exists between this right and the reality for many; however the reasons for the continuation of such discrepancies are not always clear. While barriers to sufficient water are myriad, one significant factor contributing to insufficient and unpredictable access to water is the high percentage of broken water pumps. Previous studies have reported that between 20 and 50 % of all hand operated water pumps installed on the African continent are broken, or out of use. Monitoring and maintenance of pumps, which in South Africa is the responsibility of local municipalities is often ineffective, in part due to the distances between municipal centres and rural communities and the consequent costs of site visits, as well as breakdowns within the local bureaucratic system. The emergence of new telemetry tools that can remotely monitor water applications constitutes a novel and cost-efficient alternative to undertaking regular sites visits. Sustainable, appropriate, low-cost telemetry systems are emerging that could be used to monitor the operational performance of water pumps, or a wide range of other field parameters, and to communicate this information swiftly and cheaply to water service providers, using SMS messages. Data on the performance of water pumps could also be made available to the public online. This is an example of how ICT can be used for water resources management and environmental regulation, as well as in the governance of socio-economic rights: helping to optimize water allocation by improving communication and strengthening accountability.

Innovative Online Vocational Training of Renewable Energy Technologies (INNOVRET)

 Abstract— Heat pump systems are very important at a European level as they help meet the 20-20-20 targets of the EU policy. In recent years, the European market for these technologies has increased constantly. In addition to having insufficient numbers qualified in heat pump systems installation, current training has been recognised to have limitations. If high quality, standardised training in heat pump systems is not provided, it could result in a drawing back of the market development of heat pump systems in the EU. Furthermore, the low efficiency, poor reliability and increased cost of heat pump system installation and maintenance, which has resulted from poor training has also resulted in disillusionment on the part of the purchaser, notwithstanding the obstacles of time, cost and distance on the part of the installer with regard to training. INNOVRET (Innovative Online Vocational Training of Renewable Energy Technologies), a Leonardo da Vinci funded project, aims to address the need for training sufficient numbers in heat pump system installation throughout the EU. The innovative online training solution developed by the INNOVRET team will overcome the time, cost and distance constraints of learners through the delivery of the training in a flexible and accessible way. The methodological approach to training delivery is based on the Competence-based Knowledge Space Theory (CbKST). CbKST is a framework for representing the conceptual organisation of a given body of competences, which supports self-regulated learning. By developing competencies in the installation and maintenance of heat pump systems, installers and maintenance personnel all over Europe will be able to leverage these capabilities in order to increase their employability in the emergent heat pump system sector.

Hepatic arterial infusion pump chemotherapy for colorectal liver metastases: an old technology in a new era

Aggressive treatment of colorectal cancer (crc) liver metastases can yield long-term survival and cure. Unfortunately, most patients present with technically unresectable metastases; conventional therapy in such patients consists of systemic therapy. Despite advances in the effectiveness of systemic therapy in the first-line setting, the tumour response rate and median survival remain low in the second-line setting. The preferential blood supply from the hepatic artery to crc liver metastases allows for excellent regional delivery of chemotherapy. Here, we review efficacy and safety data for hepatic artery infusion (hai) pump chemotherapy in patients with metastatic crc from the 5-fluorouracil era and from the era of modern chemotherapy. In selected patients with liver-only or liver-dominant disease who have progressed on first-line chemotherapy, hai combined with systemic agents is a viable therapeutic option when performed at experienced centres. Furthermore, significantly improved survival has been demonstrated with adjuvant hai therapy after liver resection in the phase iii setting. The complication rates and local toxicities associated with hai pump therapy are infrequent at experienced centres and can be managed with careful follow-up and early intervention. The major obstacles to the wide adoption of hai therapy include technical expertise for pump insertion and maintenance, and for floxuridine dose modification. The creation of formal preceptor-focused education and training in hai therapy for interdisciplinary medical professionals might encourage the creation and expansion of this liver-directed approach.

Analysis of External Gear Pump Failure

Several typical failures of external gear pump are presented. The reasons of the pump failure are analyzed in detail. Solutions of the failure are proposed. In order to improve the efficiency of pumps maintenance and reparation, a new kind of tool is mentioned which could predict the life of gear pump before failure occurred.

Optimal Pump Scheduling to Reduce the Operating Costs

The pumps are mechanical structures indispensable in numerous socio-economic areas like: villages water supply, irrigations, oil industry, sewage movement, chemical movement, flood control and for the production of various goods. Pumps must supply the energy necessary to lift liquids from a lower elevation to a greater one. Pumps operation and maintenance generates significant costs. One of the most efficient methods to reduce the pump operating costs is by scheduling the pump operations. This can impose pumps to operate during periods in which the electrical tariff is cheaper and combining the operations of several pumps in an efficient way. This paper aims to analyze the possibilities and the limits of using SPEA2 multi-objective optimization algorithm implemented in Matlab in order to schedule the pumps. SPEA2 was used for the first time to schedule the pumps from a water supply system by [. In that paper the algorithm was applied in Linux. This paper presents the results obtained by SPEA2 implemented in a very used programming language, Matlab. The algorithm was improved in order to obtain better solutions. In this paper we applied the optimization methods of the pump schedule to a water supply system, but these methods can be used to minimize the operational costs of any system that incorporates pumps.

The role of human error in risk analysis: Application to pre- and post-maintenance procedures of process facilities

Human factors play an important role in the safe operation of a facility. Human factors include the systematic application of information about human characteristics and behavior to increase the safety of a process system. A significant proportion of human errors occur during the maintenance phase. However, the quantification of human error probabilities in the maintenance phase has not been given the amount of attention it deserves. This paper focuses on a human factors analysis in pre-and post- pump maintenance operations. The procedures for removing process equipment from service (pre-maintenance) and returning the equipment to service (post-maintenance) are considered for possible failure scenarios. For each scenario, human error probability is calculated for each activity using the Success Likelihood Index Method (SLIM). Consequences are also assessed in this methodology. The risk assessment is conducted for each component and the overall risk is estimated by adding individual risks. The present study is aimed at highlighting the importance of considering human error in quantitative risk analyses. The developed methodology has been applied to a case study of an offshore process facility.

A Cost Utilization Analysis of Intrathecal Therapy for Refractory Cancer Pain: Identifying Factors Associated with Cost Benefit

Intrathecal therapy (ITT) for cancer pain is characterized by high initial cost followed by low maintenance costs. Non-ITT pain management is associated with steadily increasing cumulative cost that can equal the cost of ITT over time. The intent of this modeling project is to identify factors associated with relatively rapid achievement of cost-benefit with ITT. A retrospective chart review was performed on 36 patients with cancer pain who underwent ITT and survived beyond 4 weeks. Data on the cost of conventional opioid therapy prior to ITT and at 4-6 weeks were collected and projected over time. ITT costs included all intrathecal pump implantation and maintenance costs. Pre-ITT opioid regimens were stratified into high-cost conventional (HCC-high-dose, nongeneric, or use of intravenous patient-controlled analgesia, N = 12) and low-cost conventional (low-dose or generic, N = 24) regimens. The median daily cost of opioid medications pre-ITT was $21.26 (25th-75th percentile $10.31-78.85, range 0-$971.97) vs $0 (25th-75th percentile $0-0.70), P = 0.007, post-ITT. In the HCC group, the median daily cost was $172.47 (25th-75th percentile $67.29-406.20). The median daily cost of ITT medications was $16.01 (25th-75th percentile $9.52-23.23).When these data were used to model costs over the long term, including pump implantation costs, cost-benefit for all patients compared with conventional therapy was predicted at 344 months but at 7.4 months in the HCC group. Seven patients (19%) achieved cost equivalence within 6 months and three of these within the first 3 months. In selected patients on high-cost opioid regimens, ITT may become cost-beneficial within 6 months. Factors associated with earlier attainment of ITT cost-benefit include the use of parenteral therapy, high-dose opioids, and the use of nongeneric opioid products.

Corrosion analysis, and use of an inhibitor in oil wells

When oil fields enter a period of high water content the downhole string becomes severely corroded, which not only affects normal oil field production but also necessitates high maintenance and replacement costs. The corrosion is mainly caused by such substances as H2S, CO2, O2, and Cl−, and by bacteria. According to test results from analysis of well fluid, average CO2, H2S, dissolved O2, and Cl− content were 28.4, 29.33, 0.43, and 21162.8 mg/L, respectively. Corrosion mechanisms involve an autocatalytic effect caused by pitting of, or formation of films on, the metal surface, destruction of the passivation film by Cl−, and the synergetic effect of O2 on H2S and CO2 corrosion; all of these combine to increase the rate of corrosion of metallic materials. On the basis of the mechanism and causes of serious corrosion of the oil well downhole string during production, the corrosion inhibitor YC-JTHSJ, suitable for high water-content oil wells, was developed. The weight-loss method showed that corrosion was reduced by 87.04 % by this inhibitor, and the average iron content of oil well liquid dropped by more than 85 % when 80 ppm YC-JTHSJ was added. This result showed that application of this well-specific inhibitor can reduce the rate of wellbore corrosion, the time required for pump inspection and maintenance, replacement of tubing and sucker rod, and thus production costs.

Multiobjective Pump Scheduling Optimization Using Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA) and Polyphonic HSA

Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA) is a metaheuristic method that has attracted the scientific interest since its first presentation in 2001. It is a music inspired method, imitating the music creation process in order to find optimal solutions in complicated problems. HSA’s successful application on single – objective optimization problems has resulted to an increasing interest in the implementation of HSA towards multiobjective optimization. The authors have adjusted HSA in order to deal successfully with multi-criteria water management problems. This adjustment has resulted to the creation of Multiobjective – HSA (MO-HSA). In addition, they have designed the multiobjective variant Polyphonic-HSA (Poly-HSA), which is inspired by the independent development of different voices in music and borrows elements from Swarm Intelligence and the single-objective variant Global-Best HSA. In the first part of this paper, both methods are presented in detail. Moreover, the performance of the proposed Algorithms is evaluated using standard multiobjective test – functions. ZDT and DTLZ multiobjective tests have been chosen and indicators such as Hypervolume, C – metric and diversity metric – Δ have been used to measure the convergence to the optimal front and the diversity of the solutions obtained by the proposed methods. In the second part, MO-HSA and Poly-HSA have been introduced towards the optimization of a pump scheduling problem. The objectives considered are water supply, pumping cost, electric power peak demand and pump maintenance cost. Both methods converged to non-dominated fronts and provided excellent results which are presented in 3d figures, indicating that these methods can be effectively used in multiobjective water management problems.

Erratum to: Forecasting Urban Water Demand Via Wavelet-Denoising and Neural Network Models. Case Study: City of Syracuse, Italy

Forecasting urban water demand can be of use in the management of water utilities. For example, activities such as water-budgeting, operation and maintenance of pumps, wells, reservoirs, and mains require quantitative estimations of water resources at specified future dates. In this study, we tackle the problem of forecasting urban water demand by means of back-propagation artificial neural networks (ANNs) coupled with wavelet-denoising. In addition, non-coupled ANN and Linear Multiple Regression were used as comparison models. We considered the case of the municipality of Syracuse, Italy; for this purpose, we used a 7 year-long time series of water demand without additional predictors. Six forecasting horizons were considered, from 1 to 6 months ahead. The main objective was to implement a forecasting model that may be readily used for municipal water budgeting. An additional objective was to explore the impact of wavelet-denoising on ANN generalization. For this purpose, we measured the impact of five different wavelet filter-banks (namely, Haar and Daubechies of type db2, db3, db4, and db5) on a single neural network. Empirical results show that neural networks coupled with Haar and Daubechies’ filter-banks of type db2 and db3 outperformed all of the following: non-coupled ANN, Multiple Linear Regression and ANN models coupled with Daubechies filters of type db4 and db5. The results of this study suggest that reduced variance in the training-set (by means of denoising) may improve forecasting accuracy; on the other hand, an oversimplification of the input-matrix may deteriorate forecasting accuracy and induce network instability.

Strategy for water pump maintenance in Peakland

Subject area Strategic management/business policy. Study level/applicability This case study is intended for undergraduate (business administration) level students. Case overview PeakWater is a state-owned water supplier in Peakland. Owing to government restrictions, the water supply maintenance business of the company has to be outsourced to a separate entity, resulting in the establishment of FixIt, a wholly owned subsidiary of PeakWater. FixIt is mainly responsible for maintaining the water pumps, as well as investing in new projects for PeakWater. The lower efficiency and incompetence in investment of FixIt hinders the growth of PeakWater in the long run, and also causes discontent by the citizens. PeakWater's Board is evaluating two proposals submitted by the Group Planning Division. Expected learning outcomes These are: the nature of private enterprises and its creation of value for public enterprises; the conflicts of interest between private and public enterprises; and the criteria and considerations in the evaluation of corporate strategies. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available – consult your librarian for access. The teaching notes include a list of supporting materials.

Maintaining deep well submersibles

Maintenance of submersible pumps is complex due to the depth at which they are installed, which makes access difficult. Correct facility design to extend the time between failures and the monitoring of several parameters to determine the pumps' performance during operation are therefore vital factors, as Miguel Ortiz and Alejandro Palomo report.

Impact of depuration of earthy-musty off-flavors on fillet quality of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, cultured in a recirculating aquaculture system

Over the past decade in the United States, there has been increased interest in the establishment and use of land-based, closed-containment systems [e.g., recirculating aquaculture system (RAS)] for salmonid culture. These culture systems have unique challenges compared to net pen culture of salmonids, including maintenance of pumps and filters as well as the potential growth of certain bacteria within the systems that can render fish off-flavored. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of implementing a depuration process to purge the “earthy” and “musty” off-flavor compounds geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) from Atlantic salmon fillets on fillet quality characteristics (e.g., lipid content, color). During two depuration trials, salmon were depurated without feed in a flow-through tank, a recently “cleaned” RAS system or the originally stocked grow-out tank for up to 20 days. Results from both trials determined that the salmon required depuration in odor-free water for 10–15 days in either a flow-through system or a recently cleaned RAS to obtain the lowest residual levels of geosmin and MIB in the fish flesh. In trial 1, after 20 days, fish had lost significantly more weight (5.8%) compared to day 5 (3.8%). In the second trial, lipid content of the fillet also significantly dropped from 8.2% to 5.1% and moisture content increased from 69.3% to 71.1%. Fillet color quality was not compromised during the 20-day depuration periods. In trial 1, MIB was the main off-flavor compound present in salmon fillets while geosmin was at higher levels than MIB in fish flesh in trial 2. During the second depuration study, three geosmin-producing species of actinomycetes were isolated from the recirculating system and were attributed as the likely sources of geosmin in the salmon fillets. Because fillet color quality was not compromised during the depuration periods used in these studies, the main fillet quality concerns for producers of RAS-cultured salmon are flavor, texture and lipid levels during the pre-harvest purging process.

Maintenance of submersible pumps in the septic tanks: ergonomic and biological risks to the worker

In this study was observed the maintenance task of submersible pumps septic tanks installed in industrial bathrooms. This maintenance activity operators are exposed to various biological and ergonomic risks. This type of activity requires its great physical performers who are also subject to contact with human waste in the form of liquids, gases and solids. Besides the problems mentioned, are still exposed to high temperatures that can cause diseases such as hyperthermia or heatstroke. These aspects were observed using the ergonomic assessment methodology in order to suggest improvements that are reflected in productivity and employee satisfaction.

115 計測技術を用いた下水道施設関連ポンプ保全手法の改善(振動・騒音と人間)

115 計測技術を用いた下水道施設関連ポンプ保全手法の改善(振動・騒音と人間)

Detailed Scheduling of Operations in Single-Source Refined Products Pipelines

The short-term scheduling of refined products pipelines is a very complex problem with many operational constraints to be considered. Available nondiscrete planning approaches just provide the input schedule and the set of aggregate product deliveries to be performed from in-transit lots to depots at every batch injection. To determine the sequence of individual cuts on each batch to be accomplished by the pipeline operator, it is still necessary to refine such an aggregate plan. To do so, new computational tools for efficiently generating the detailed schedule of single-source pipelines with multiple distribution terminals are presented. Two types of methodologies are proposed. On one hand, it is developed a continuous-time mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation that seeks to minimize both the total flow restart volume and the number of single-delivery pumping runs over the planning horizon. In this way, substantial savings in energy consumption and pump maintenance costs are achieved. Effective solution strategies for the MILP model are also designed to deal with large pipeline scheduling problems. On the other hand, three different heuristic rules for selecting the receiving terminal are introduced. By applying those rules in combination with a discrete-event simulation model, not only alternative detailed schedules can be generated in a very short CPU time but also some of them are near-optimal solutions. Three instances of a case study aimed at finding the detailed schedule of a real-world single-source pipeline system are solved through the proposed optimization and discrete-event simulation methods. Results are analyzed to assess the quality of the generated solutions and the required computational costs.

Operational state monitoring and fuzzy fault diagnostic system of mine drainage

A system to monitor the operational state of a coal mine drainage system is presented, fault problems are diagnosed and solved. The system includes a Single Chip Microprocessor (SCM) Atmega169 and an industrial PC used as a master-slave structure. Characteristic parameters of the drainage system were extracted and analysed. As well, a research project on the fault diagnosis of centrifugal water pump based on a fuzzy synthetic evaluation method is initiated. The proposed monitoring and fault diagnostic system can improve the automation, safety, reliability, economy and efficiency of mine drainage systems considerably, decrease blindness and shorten the time required for water pump maintenance.

Pump Maintenance Ensures Reliable, Efficient Operation

This article discusses the operation and maintenance of pumps, and how a proper understanding of pump components and regular maintenance can prolong the life of a utility's most energy‐consuming operation. The article discusses several types of bearings found in pumping equipment, proper lubrication of bearings, packing to allow proper leakage, maintaining clearance between wear rings and case rings, and the types of major repair jobs that can be expected for pumps.