Centrifugal Pump Hydraulics by the Numbers

By Terry Henshaw

Centrifugal Pump Axial Thrust

T
he late Charlie Jackson, vibra-
tion expert at Monsanto, once
told me that he was unaware
of any centrifugal pump manufac-
turer that knew how to calculate
the hydraulic axial thrust produced
within the liquid ends of their pumps.
I suspect that he was referring to ven-
dors of single-stage, single-suction
pumps because, for decades, vendors
of vertical turbine pumps have seemed
to have had a good handle on the
thrusts created by their product line.
However, I think he was right about
the single-stage pump producers. It
seems that progress has been limited
in that area. I am aware of a number
of horizontal and vertical in-line, sin-
gle-stage, single-suction pumps with
thrust bearings that have short lives.
Figure 1. Horizontal Pump

Horizontal, Single-Stage Pumps in

a Refinery
Charlie Miannay was an engineer working for a ren-
ery on the island of Aruba in the Caribbean. He was
given the task of determining the cause of, and solution
for, the short lives of thrust bearings in a number of
the horizontal, single-stage, process pumps in the ren-
ery. Each pump was equipped with a single-suction,
enclosed impeller tted with wear rings on the front
and back and with balance holes drilled through the
impeller hub (back shroud), which allowed back-ring
leakage to ow back into the eye.
he pumps were similar to the one in Figure 1.
Examination of the failed bearings indicated excessive
thrusts toward the impeller eyes. Miannay knew that
increasing the diameter of the back wear ring would
reduce the thrust toward the eye and methodically set
about increasing the back ring diameters in the prob-
lematic pumps. He successfully increased the lives of all
the previously short-lived bearings.

Vertical Refinery Pumps

I was asked to analyze the short thrust-bearing lives
Figure 2. In-Line Pump of a line of vertical, in-line, renery pumps, similar to

18 MAY 2012 www.pump-zone.com PUMPS & SYSTEMS

the one in Figure 2. Each pump had a single-suction, enclosed shape or propeller eect. All axial impellers, including induc-
impeller, with wear rings on the front and back, and balance ers, produce axial thrust. he Francis style impeller cannot be
holes drilled through the impeller hub. he pump shaft was excluded from this group.
coupled to the motor shaft through a rigid coupling. he By increasing the diameter of the back wear ring from 7.5
axial thrust from the pump was absorbed by the thrust bear- to 8 inches, the total axial thrust from the pump was reduced to
ing in the motor. he most problematic pump was a 3,600- near zero. Figure 3 shows the equation that I produced for cal-
rpm, 2,000-gallon-per-minute, 600-foot head unit driven by a culating the axial thrust of a centrifugal pump. Unfortunately,
300-horsepower motor. he pump was
equipped with 7.5-inch diameter wear
rings on both the front and back of the
impeller.
Even though the 300-horsepower
ProSeries for All Systems

motor was rated to accept a signicant

thrust from the pump, the investigation All FLEX-PRO A2

N E W
revealed that it was equipped with the Smaller Systems Dont have to Put
same size thrust bearing as the 40-horse- Up with Noisy, Inefficient Solenoid
power motor provided by that vendor. PumpsMove up to Peristaltic
he axial thrust rating given to the Performance!
300-horsepower motor was higher than Self priming.
the 40-horsepower motor, even though IP6
P666 Smooth pumping action.
No expensive rebuild kits!
it should have been much less, allowing NEM
EMM
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WAS
WA
A
ASH DO
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4
WN
X
Generous Two Year Warranty.
for the extra weight of the motor rotor.
hat was clearly part of the problema
wimpy thrust bearing.
A second part of the problem was Standard 61

excessive thrust from the pump. We

measured the pressures in the casing all
around the impeller and plugged these
numbers into the traditional axial thrust FLEX-PRO A3
Need More Volume?

equation from References 1 and 2. When Feed up to 33 gph. Built-in Tube Failure
we measured the axial thrust produced 2,500:1 turndown. Detection.
by the pump, it was 700 pounds higher Generous Warranty.

than calculated with the equation. (It

is no wonder that the over-rated, over-
loaded bearing had a short life.)
What was the source of the extra
thrust? Could it be from a front shroud
running close to the casing? A series of
tests was performed with successively NEM
EMMA 4X
IP6
P6
66
smaller impeller outside diameters, and WA
WASH
WAS
WA
ASH DO
DOWWN Standard 61

the 700-pound excess thrust did not

change. he conclusion was that the
extra thrust was being produced within
the diameter of the wear rings.
SONIC-PRO S3
Ultrasonic Flowmeter

he impeller in this pump was of the No Moving Parts. Clamp-on transducers.

Francis design: the vanes twisted as they No Wetted Materials. Works with clean or dirty fluids
NEM
N EM
E MA 4X
turned into the eye. his is an excellent WASH
WASH
WAS
WA
A DODOW
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design. While it costs more to produce,

this design results in higher eciency
and lower NPSHR. Such vanes, though,
push the pumpage not only radially but
axially. I concluded that it was this axial
push on the pumpage that created the
extra axial thrust. I call this the vane
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PUMPS & SYSTEMS www.pump-zone.com MAY 2012 19
 Pumping Prescriptions
Figure 3. Equation
I have been unable to calculate the value of the propeller eect,
so it is necessary to measure the axial thrust produced by each
impeller to establish that value.
The Effect of Wear Ring Clearance
One valuable lesson learned in the testing program was the
signicant eect that wear ring clearance has on axial thrust.
When we increased the clearance between the eye (front) rings,
the thrust toward the eye increased signicantly, apparently
because of the increased strength of the vortex between the
impeller shroud and the casing. he conservation of angular
momentum caused the increase in the radially-inward ow of
pumpage to strengthen the vortex. he higher rotative speed
of the disc of pumpage, adjacent to the impeller front shroud,
caused a drop in pressure against the shroud, resulting in an
increase in the hydraulic down thrust.
he same phenomenon creates an axial thrust in two-stage
and multistage pumps with back-to-back impellers. Figure 4
illustrates the principle. he higher pressure impeller is on the
right. he higher pressure on its back side pushes pumpage
through the center bushing, resulting in an inward ow along
the back shroud of the higher-pressure impeller, and an out-
ward ow along the back shroud of the lower pressure impeller.
he lines marked THEORETICAL in Figure 4 indicate
the pressure proles for no leakage through the bushing. he
20 MAY 2012 www.pump-zone.com
Figure 4. Back-to-Back Imps.
ow through the bushing causes the pressure lines to shift to
the left for both impellers, reducing the pressure on the back of
the higher pressure impeller and increasing the pressure on the
back of the lower pressure impeller. Both eects increase the
axial thrust to the left. A larger clearance at the center bushing
allows more leakage, resulting in higher thrust. Allowing the
clearance to increase on the center bushings has been known to
cause short lives of thrust bearings. he extended hubs on both
impellers also contribute to an axial thrust to the left.
Charlie, I think that we have made some progress, but we
still have a way to go.
P&S
References
1. Stepano, A. J., Ingersoll-Rand, Centrifugal and Axial Flow Pumps, John
Wiley & Sons, New York, 1948.
2. Karassik, Igor J., Worthington, Centrifugal Pump Construction,
Section 2.2 of the rst edition of the Pump Handbook, edited by Karassik,
Krutzsch, and Fraser, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1976.
3. Trout, Robert G., FMC, Axial hrust in Centrifugal Pumps, ASME
Paper 62-HYD-13, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York,
NY, 1963.
Terry Henshaw is a retired engineer living in Magnolia,
Texas. He worked more than 50 years in the pump industry.
He can be reached at pumprof@att.net.
PUMPS & SYSTEMS
 Readers Respond

Centrifugal Pumps Hydraulics by the Numbers: Centrifugal Pump Axial Thrust

Editors Note: In
Centrifugal Pumps
Hydraulics by the
Numbers: Centrifugal
Pump Axial hrust (May
2012), Figures 1, 2 and 4
did not include their com-
plete captions and credits.
he gures are provided
below with their complete
captions and credits. We
apologize for any confusion
this may
have
caused.

P&S Figure 1. A typical horizontal, single-stage, single-suction process pump with enclosed impeller and
wear rings, front and back

Figure 2. A typical vertical, inline, single-stage, single-suction process

pump with enclosed impeller and wear rings, front and back
Courtesy of Afton Pumps
Figure 4. Illustration of axial thrust created by back-to-back
impellers. Image provided courtesy of Flowserve Corporation.

6 JULY 2012 www.pump-zone.com PUMPS & SYSTEMS