PIPE-FLO Nuclear

Millstone Power Station. Image via www.nrc.gov

Now that PIPE-FLO Nuclear is nearing its release, one of our new employees asked me how someone in a nuclear power plant could use the new program. That got me thinking about my first job after getting out of the Navy. In 1975, I was hired by Northeast Utilities as a start-up and test engineer at Millstone Unit 2 in Waterford Connecticut. I was assigned to a group of five engineers involved in a pre-operation test in which we balanced the component cooling water system. The component cooling water system is a safety related system and must be operational after a postulated accident.  
This involved test went on 24 hours a day for about two weeks. It started when the engineers at Bechtel in Gaithersburg, Maryland (the EPC for the plant) sent us a datasheet with the prescribed valve position as the initial “guess” for balancing the system. 

During the second shift, the plant operators placed the component cooling water system in the proper configuration for the test. The team of test engineers would place the throttle valves to the prescribed valve position. Once this was done, we would then record the pressures and flow rates using the installed plant instrumentation. We would compile the information into a report; type in onto a report and by about 5:00 AM, would finally fax the results to Bechtel in Gaithersburg.
 
During the day, a group of engineers at Bechtel evaluated our test data from the night before, and after a day of calculations, compiled a new set of valve positions. They would then type a report with the new valve positions and fax it to us by 7:00 PM, so we could repeat the process. This was an iterative process and after each round of test data and new valve positions, the flow rates to each load in the cooling water system got closer to the design values. This process continued for about two week until the results were within the prescribed value outlined in our Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR for short).

Image from the 1999 movie "Office Space", where
disgruntled workers obliterated their fax machine.

As you can see this was a team effort with about ten engineers in two location working around the clock to balance a critical system in a nuclear power plant. Even the FAX machine required two full time operators, using a Xerox Magnafax Telecopier, one at Millstone the other in Gaithersburg. Let me quickly describe this arduous process and this is such old technology I could not find a picture of one anywhere on the internet, but try to imagine with me. The fax machine was a hefty 46 pounds and was connected to a standard telephone buy inserting the phones handset into an acoustic coupler. The operator sending the fax would place a call on a POT (Plain Old Telephone) to the operator on the receiving end. The sending operator would then place the page on a drum, to start the process the drum would rotate, the machine would screech and once the two machines were talking to each other the receiving operator would flip a switch and the Fax would come through line by line. After six minutes, a single page was done and the operators would then manually reload the paper on each end and start the process for the next page in the report. With two good operators, we could transmit a six-page report in an hour! 

As you can see, technology has come a long way. About 10 year ago, I met up with one of the test engineers from Millstone. He was now in plant management and said that they used PIPE-FLO to calculate the valve positions needed to balance his plants cooling water system. I asked him how long it took with PIPE-FLO, and he said once the model was validated, the valve positions were calculated within seconds. The operators then set the valves to the prescribed position and then took the pressure and flow readings just like before. Now they would compare the calculated values with the observed values. If the results were within the prescribed values, the test is signed off. He said from start to finish they were able to balance their equipment cooling water system in less than a day. 

In 2005, the NRC granted Millstone 2 and 3 a 20-year extension on their operating license after an extensive 22-month review process. I find it remarkable that after 40 years, the plant that I helped start up is still running and has another 10 years of operation. 

One of the reasons that the US civilian nuclear power program has been so successful and safe is because of the quality requirements placed on the equipment, and the training requirements of the plant personnel.


Our soon to be released PIPE-FLO Nuclear program comes with an extensive Commercial Grade Dedication in which we document the engineering methods used, outline our development and testing programs, along with an extensive set of test procedures that we developed. To automate the testing process we use PIPE-FLO’s DataLink feature to export design data and calculated results from the PIPE-FLO model to any ODBC capable program like Microsoft ® Excel® or Access®. 

Using the Excel spreadsheets included in the PIPE-FLO Nuclear, one is able to compare PIPE-FLO’s calculated results with the results calculated using Excel. The Excel Verification Worksheets utilize conditional formatting to automatically highlight any values greater than those specified in the Acceptance Criteria. By using Excel, anyone can review the formulas use in the spreadsheets and validate our check calculations.

Nuclear power plants have used PIPE-FLO for over 20 years, but until the release of PIPE-FLO Nuclear, each of our utility customers had to develop their own Commercial Grade Dedication, which may take months to develop. Since a Commercial Grade Dedication needs to be performed for each new version of PIPE-FLO, and the cost is so high for them to perform the work, many use older versions of PIPE-FLO. 

By making PIPE-FLO Nuclear available to our nuclear customers, they will benefit from the latest versions of the software much more quickly. They will still need to run their own commercial grade dedication, but using our supplied templates, they will be able to do their own CGD in a fraction of the time.

Now that is progress. 

Continous Uptime

Engineered Software and PUMP-FLO Solutions are and have always been, committed to our customer’s satisfaction, as well as their user experience. Along with offering the best support in the industry, we also look to implement proactive measures so our customers never have to use their support service or wait to use their web products from us. We are monitoring Continuous Uptime more closely than ever before using even finer detailed reports, and this month's blog explains what that means for you.

Our latest improvements are completely behind the scenes but the results can be felt throughout our product lines and website users. The term, Continuous Uptime might seem out of place in the technology industry but I assure you, it is just as important to our customers as it would be to a production supervisor in an industrial manufacturing plant.

 

What we’ve done

In additional to significant investments in our infrastructure to enhance the availability and scalability of our delivery framework, we have created a monitoring system for all of our PUMP-FLO and Engineered Software web services on Amazon Web Services. This includes metrics and warnings for standard server attributes like CPU, memory and disk storage. In addition, we have created custom metrics to monitor performance and response times.

The monitoring system is the first step toward a fully distributed and scalable web services environment, which is currently in progress.

Why we’re doing it

We understand pump selection is:

1. an integral part of how pump manufacturers communicate with pump buyers
2. an integrated part of their sales and quotation process
3. a key advantage for system designers
4. a valuable lead generation tool

PUMP-FLO web services and our Insight configurator are key to our customers’ business goals and their strategic initiatives to grow revenue, penetrate new markets, and improve organizational efficiency.

We’re advancing scalable, web-based and secure technology for pump selection to meet those needs and ensure a stable, continuous platform.

PUMP-FLO is a worldwide web services platform and as such, we strive for 24x7 uptime. By implementing this uptime monitoring system, we are able to provide more flexibility, reliability, quicker response times and additional security all while our services remain uninterrupted for our customers.

Working Together to Build the Best

Last month’s Blog I discussed how pumps get over-sized because of our failure to communicate and the possibility of cumulative error in the process. This month I will discuss ways to communicate together from the get-go so a better system may be built.

In last months blog I stated that the most common communication problem in piping system design is the failure to accurately state the process requirements when selecting a pump. In this month’s blog I will add commentary of what could be done to improve the communications. (Italics indicate quote from last month’s blog.) 

Sizing the Pump

Every system needs a pressure gain device or pump to move the fluid through the piping system. Choosing the right pump, motor sizing, correctly sizing pipes, and determining the best efficiency point all depend on knowing the capacity requirements for the system.

“The owner of the system design provides a capacity requirement based on future system needs knowing full well that the system will be operating at a lower capacity for an extended period of time until the market need catches up with capacity.”

The owner should clearly state in the design documents that the pump system is expected to be operating at 500 gpm for the first 5 years then increase to 1,000 gpm once product sales ramp up. Full disclosure on the system’s intended design and purpose should be stated from the beginning. 

“The engineer designing the system takes the capacity provided by the process group and adds a 20% design margins of flow (to allow for future capacity increases).”

Assuming that the owner has clearly stated their design requirements in the design documents, the engineer now knows from the beginning that the system will be operating at 500 gpm for the foreseeable future, and the possible future requirements of 1,000 gpm capacity. There is no need for the engineer to factor the additional 20% design margin increase in pump selection. The engineer can size the pipelines to meet both the immediate needs AND have a design flexible enough to meet the future needs as well. Once the pipelines are sized, the head loss in the system can be determined for both 500 gpm and 1,000 gpm. Based on this information, the total head for the pump can be determined for both conditions but selected from the current condition of 500 gpm.

Avoiding the Snowball Effect

It may start as a small over estimate but it can get compounded when others on the project try to compensate for the lack of specificity in the beginning.

“In addition, a design margin for head is added (to account for system uncertainties during the design process) when specifying the equipment. As a result the pump design point is 1,200 gpm and 200 ft of head.

The individual selecting the pump chooses a pump with the design point left of the pumps Best Efficiency Point (BEP) to allow the pump to better accommodate future system capacity increases.”

Since engineering is now initially designing the system to operate at 500 gpm, there is no need to add extra capacity for the future at this time. When it comes time to add the future capacity, the owner will have a better understanding of the actual production needs and can factor that into the selection when the increased process loads are known. The engineer submitting the pump specification to the supplier can provide information on the current needs as well as the future needs.

The options available to the engineer and customer can be:

• Select a pump that can meet the future needs with a variable speed drive. This allows the pump to meet both today’s needs (at a slower speed) as well as the projected future requirements (at a higher speed).
• Select a pump that has a sufficient range of impeller diameters to meet the 500 gpm flow rate, with sufficient additional diameter to meet the expected future flow. A new impeller will need to be purchased to meet the future requirements but the savings in pumping cost will more than make up for the difference.
• Design the system with multiple pumps in parallel. To meet the initial 500 gpm one pump can be operated, and to meet the future needs a second pump can be operated providing the proper head and flow for the future capacity.

The next step is for the engineer to submit a pump specification to the pump supplier. Since the system owner provided a detailed description of how the system will operate, the design engineer for the system is able to provide the known information in the pump specifications. Armed with the full details of how the system will be operated throughout the next 5+ years, the pump supplier is able to select the best pump meeting the stated requirements.

By being upfront with the design intentions and explaining the current needs and future vision in detail, each group in the process knows how the system will be operating in the foreseeable future along with the projected future capacity. No assumptions needed. If that information is shared with each individual, every step of the way, the design margins will reflect how the pumps needs to be run, not how it will be run in the future, and less of a chance of a snowball effect.

I have offered one example of a common area of miscommunication in the piping system design process. Please feel free to add your experiences to the comments below or offer advice to anyone starting out on their first design project. I appreciate all of your feedback.

Darcy's Fables III

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes 38 seconds. Read Later

The other night I was babysitting my grand-kids and they asked me to read them a story from their favorite book Piping System Fundamentals. So I asked my middle grandchild, what part of the book she would like me to read. She said the part about balancing the energy usage within a pumped system and the need to identify and eliminate excess pump head. When I started reading, she said “No Pop-Pop not with those words, make it into a story with kings, and animals.” Well I knew I needed to bring out my old French friend Henry Darcy to create another “Darcy’s Fable.”

 

The Story of the Elephant King and the Busy Beavers

 

Once upon a time, there lived an Elephant King, who liked to provide his subjects with all the best the kingdom could offer. The King decided that for the kingdom to grow and prosper he would need to bring water from Lake Lilly, the giant water hole in the center of the kingdom, to all the cities and villages.

The first order of business was to get the Zebras together to plan the water system for the future and make sure it wasn’t too small. The Zebras came up with their estimate and then doubled it just to be on the safe side. They forwarded their estimate to the Wart Hogs to come up with a design. (My grandson thinks Wart Hogs are nice and wants them in every story!) The Wart Hogs did all their calculations, and since they were planning for the future they too added an ample margin for future growth.

As the system was built, everyone was excited. The Squirrels, having a knack for saving, were in charge of kingdom finances. Since the Squirrels had to pay for the project out of the royal treasury, they were starting to get concerned about the project costs. The project went ahead and was finished on time but over budget. 

The water pumps were big and they took large teams of Horses to run them, but they were bright and shiny. Everyone was impressed with what had been built. Once the water system was finished and the pumps started, there was plenty of water everywhere around the kingdom. In fact, there was too much water in many locations and some of the villages had problems dealing with the water. 

In one farming village, there were floods in the fields but the resourceful farmers planted rice in the fields instead of wheat to try and “fix” or “cover” up the overabundance. In other villages, the excess water went into the streets making it difficult to travel, but it was quickly diverted by the Hippopotami to existing streams that lead back to Lake Lilly. Over time, all the startup problems were solved and the system worked. As the wise Elephant King envisioned the kingdom prospered.

After a couple of months, the Squirrels approached the Elephant King and said that the water project cost twice as much to operate than originally planned. But since the kingdoms productivity increased there was enough in the royal treasury to pay for the increased operating cost.

In the summer months, when the water was needed the most there were parts of the kingdom that didn’t have enough water. The King decided that something needed to be done so he brought in the Busy Beavers to look at the system to see what could be done.

The first thing the Beavers discovered was that some areas in the kingdom got too much water while other areas more distant from Lake Lilly didn’t get enough. The Beavers busily set about to plug some of the pipe outlets in the areas that had too much water. As they started plugging the pipelines close to Lake Lilly, they started getting more water to the more remote locations of the kingdom. As they worked their way out from Lake Lilly, they found that all the pipelines needed to be partially plugged to prevent flooding. Soon the Beavers found that over time, the plugs they placed in the pipelines to balance the flow would spring leaks requiring continual repairs.

After talking to the Squirrels about the operating costs, the Beavers discovered the cost to operate the large Horse driven pumps continued to climb. It seemed the raceway the Horses ran on to drive the pumps was also beginning to wear out. When the dirt raceway was replaced with a stone raceway, the Horses’ shoes wore out much faster and their hooves were splitting, increasing the system maintenance cost. Neither of those solutions worked!

Then the Beavers put two and two together and determined that the pump was too large for the needs of the system. After reviewing the pump curve and performing a few pump affinity speed calculations, they determined that if they replaced the fast Horses with smaller and slower Goats the pump would develop less pressure and would stop blowing out the plugs. After replacing the Horses with Goats, they rebalanced the system and all was well in the royal water system. The Beavers were able to reduce the cost to run the pumps as well as practically eliminate all of the breakdowns and maintenance troubles.

The Elephant King was so happy that the system worked that he had a royal dinner for the Beavers and everyone lived happily ever after.

THE END

My granddaughter was so happy about the story she said “See Pop-Pop, if you optimize a pump, you can reduce your capital costs, operating cost, and maintenance costs while increasing system reliability. I really like stories with happy endings.”

Darcy's Fables II

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes 31 seconds. Read Later

I was reading to my grandchildren from Piping System Fundamentals, their favorite book, and enjoying some family time. We were talking about the pump curve, one of the most important documents dealing with pumped systems. They all had questions about reading the pump curve and understanding why it was so important to know where it is running on the curve. Since they had so many questions, I created this Darcy’s Fable to explain:

The Raccoon, Possum, Porcupine, and the Golden Map

Once upon a time was a Raccoon, Possum, and Porcupine lived in the Primeval Woods. Life was hard for the woodland critters, and the past winter was especially long and cold which put everyone in a foul mood. Moreover, food was in short supply and everyone was worried about the future.

As the Raccoon, Possum and Porcupine were sitting by the side of a brook complaining about how hard life was, a beautiful Water Sprite flew by on shimmering wings.

She said to the trio, “I have been listing to your worries and complaints so I thought I would help you out. I will give each one of you a Golden Map. With it, you can find your way to Westwood. There you will find the weather is mild, the food is plentiful and life is much better. Just follow the Golden Map and all will be well.”

Then the Water Sprite flitted off laughing, knowing that her gift would cause misfortune for some of the critters. You see, this sprite was quite mischievous, often tricking people. She then vanished as quickly as she had appeared.

Possum quickly looked at the Golden Map and said, “This looks very simple, I will put it in my backpack and start the journey right away!” However, as the Possum was putting the Golden Map into his backpack, a sudden breeze caught the paper and it fell into the brook where it was swept away.

Possum was undeterred and he said, “No matter, it looked so simple I can easily remember it and find my way to the Westwood,” and he promptly set off.

Then Porcupine looked at the Golden Map and said, “This map must be very important, so I will make sure it is safely in my backpack and I will only take it out if I really need it.” Then he too, immediately set off for Westwood.

After the other two had so quickly gone on their merry way, Raccoon looked at the Golden Map and said, “This must be important, and since Westwood is so very far away I think I will study and learn about this map before starting my journey.”

He then set out to find the Great Owl, the wisest animal in the forest. The Great Owl looked at the Golden Map and after a while, was able to unlock its secrets.

He shared the secrets of the map with Raccoon and showed him the blue line to follow from the Primeval Woods through the Spot of Sweetness and finally going Between the Emerald Peaks (Let’s call it BEP) then your journey to Westwood will be easy.

The Raccoon then set about getting ready and packing for the journey, starting off the following morning. Within two days journey, he made it to Westwood where the winters are mild, the mood bright, and the food is plentiful. Racoon was so thankful he had learned how to read his Golden Map!

But the poor Possum without the aid of the Golden Map went into the “Lowlands of Poor Operation” where there was turbulence, cavitation, and excessive noise. The Possum was so scared in this land that he got totally missed the truck coming down the road he was standing on. Unfortunately he was run over and can still be found by the side of the road.*

*(I always like it when a character dies in a story. It keeps them from being too sappy.)

Porcupine started his journey, but when he looked at the Golden Map, he could not unlock its secrets. He wandered about aimlessly in the “Land of the Rough Running.” The rocks and the thorny bushes cut his shoes and ripped at his cloths and the noise and thunder keeps him awake at night. He was constantly buying new shoes and wandering around with tattered clothing, a very miserable porcupine. 

Suddenly one of my granddaughters exclaimed “Now it get it Pop Pop, for every pump in the plant we should have a pump curve. We should know where each pump is running on its curve and try to operate Between the Emerald Peaks, I mean around the BEP. If we do that we can reduce both its operating cost and maintenance cost.”

Her sister, always the romantic said, “Pop Pop whatever happened to the Raccoon in Westwood?”

I said that he is currently in a long-term relationship with a very attractive girl raccoon and they are looking to have a litter of kits when the time is right. She seemed satisfied with that answer so I chose to leave it at that!

If you'd like to learn more about reading pump curves. Engineered Software Knowledge Base has a couple articles that might help.

Reading a Pump Curve and Pump Curve Landmarks are both very informative.

Let me know what you think of these Darcy's Fables. I have at least one more to share, but I'd like to know what you all think about them. (Read The First Darcy's Fable Here) Leave a comment below or send an email to blogger@eng-software dot com. Thanks for reading!

James Watt

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes 14 seconds. Read Later

This month's blog is about James Watt (1736 to 1819) the Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose work on the early steam engine ushered in the industrial revolution and laid the foundation for the study of thermodynamics.

James Watt started out his professional career as maker of mathematical instruments including parallel rulers, telescopes, barometers and such. While working on an astronomical instrument at the University of Glasgow his skills were so appreciated that in 1757, he was offered space to set up his workshop to repair the universities instruments.

Two years later, Watt started looking at the Newcomen steam engine, which was used to pump water from the coalmines throughout Scotland and England. The Newcomen steam engine consisted of a cylinder, piston, and balance beam with a counter weight. The steam was introduced into the base of the cylinder driving the piston. Once the piston was at the top of its stroke, a valve closed the steam flow, and another valve opened injecting cold water into the cylinder. The cold water created a vacuum within the cylinder causing the piston to retract. The piston was connected to a rocker beam and the other end of the rocker beam was connected to a rod pump that pumped out the mine.

The primary drawback of the Newcomen steam engine was the need to inject cold water into the cylinder to create the vacuum. The cold water caused the walls of the cylinder to cool down requiring additional steam injection to warm up the cylinder.

In 1763 Watt was asked to repair the University’s Newcomen steam engine. Although never having seen one before he was able to get it operating, but quickly determined that most of the steam being supplied to the engine was used to heat the cylinder after each cold water injection cycle.

By 1765 Watt determined that by condensing the steam in a separate chamber instead of the piston, and by keeping the cylinder temperature the same value as the inlet steam temperature, he realized that more energy from the steam could be converted to mechanical energy. The Watt steam engine still used saturated steam slightly above atmospheric pressure. The steam was injected into the cylinder at the bottom of the piston stroke to move the piston. On the Watt steam engine, a valve in the cylinder was opened once the piston reached the end of the stroke allowing steam to flow to a separate chamber. Water was then injected into the separate chamber to condense the steam. Later the condensing chamber was further improved by setting the condenser chamber in a cold-water tank, eliminating the need to inject cold water. Further improvements were made by collecting the warm condensate from the condenser and using it as boiler feed.

Watt further improved the design by sealing the top of the cylinder and injecting low-pressure steam into the top of the upper part of the cylinder to help move the piston down. This helped push the steam from the cylinder to the condenser chamber while increasing the speed of the engine. In 1775 these design improvement went into the first production version.

Like every good startup Watt needed a moneyman or “angel investor.” (The term “angel” was first used in 1978 by William Wetzel, a professor at that time at the University of New Hampshire.) Enter Matthew Boulton a serial entrepreneur that funded the Watt’s first steam engine. The new company Watt and Boulton got their original design completed and installed three engines in 1776. Their engines used 75% less fuel than the Newcomen engine due to its more efficient use of steam.

The early company made a practice of not selling the steam engines directly, instead they were given to the mine but the Watt and Boulton company charged a license fee to the engine owners based on their fuel savings over the Newcomen engine. As you can imagine many of the users of the Watt Boulton steam engines tried to stiff the company by not paying their full licensing. This resulted in multiple legal actions, making them both wealthy men.

Additional improvements to the Watt and Boulton engine occurred in later designs when the cylinders could be “precision bored” to minimize steam leakage. In addition an arrangement of steam inlet valves on the other side of the piston, allows the entrance of steam to both ends of the piston. This resulted in a double action engine, which in effect doubled the power output of the engine.

The next major improvement included the addition of epicycle sun and planet gears, and a flywheel to allow the output of the reciprocating engine to supply power to rotary loads. Now steam engines could replace water wheels and windmills in grain mills, textile mills, and other factories allowing the location of industrial plants anywhere instead of being required to be located next to streams and rivers. As an aside, Watt used the epicycle sun and plant gears to avoid paying licensing fees to the inventor of the crank. Once the patent for the crank ran out, the Watt and Boulton engines used the crank and flywheel design.

Watt continued to make improvements to the steam engine, including the flywheel governor to even out the load, and the Watt indicator to monitor the efficiency of his steam engine. Watt never stopped inventing. He developed the concept of horsepower and the SI unit of power, (the watt), was named after him. Watt pioneered the efficiency effort using improved design, among many of his great contributions.

I consider James Watt both and inventor, as well as the father of mechanical engineering. He took a rudimentary steam engine, gained an understanding of how it operated, and improved its efficiency 100 years prior to the study of thermodynamics. Not only did the Watt and Boulton steam engine do an excellent job of pumping out coalmines in England, but also its ability to bring power to any industrial process anywhere that required energy made the industrial revolution possible.

As you can see, just as today, in the 1700s there was cutting-edge technology, angle investors, patent disputes and legal action to enforce intellectual property rights. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Who do you consider as the father of engineering? Who would better represent the mechanical engineering field? Let me know by leaving a comment or sending me an email to blogger@eng-software.com. We are welcoming guest bloggers. Just send us a message if you would be interested in becoming a guest blogger.

The Taco Bell Drive-Thru and Pumping System Assessments

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes 45 seconds. Read Later

Admiral H.G. Rickover 1900 - 1986

When I was a Lieutenant (jg) in the US Navy nuclear power program in the 1970’s there was only one admiral that mattered, that was Admiral H.G. Rickover. Some call him the father of the nuclear navy, but I thought of him as more of an all-seeing, all-knowing god, than a father. At that time, he had been the director of Naval Reactors for over 25 years and he knew everything that was happening on each one of his nuclear powered vessels. Every month the Admiral would send out a variety of magazine articles designed to make us well rounded naval officers. On the USS Jack (SSN 605) we kept the Admiral’s required reading in the officer’s head (bathroom for you non nautical types) so we could read while sitting. The Admiral’s suggested articles always provided interesting reading. I distinctly remember one article about the animal husbandry of cows and how semen is extracted from a 2,200 pound bull. I also recall an article about the science of honey. The Admiral’s topics would vary widely, along with the ever present transcripts of his annual testimony given to the US House and Senate on the state of the Nuclear Navy.

So last week I read an interesting article that I would like to share with you. You don’t have to read it in the head because I have provided a link. (Unless your Wi-Fi reaches the restroom and you happen to have a water-proof device.) In the May 5th, 2011 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, I was fascinated by the article "Taco Bell and the Golden Age of Drive-Thru." It talked about how the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant - They don’t refer to it as fast food), has some of the most advanced operational thinking. Their aim is to enable their customers to place an order, have it filled accurately (over 93% of the time), pay and then be on their way with a hot meal in less than 164 seconds.

It turns out it hasn’t always been that way. In the 1990’s, when the drive-thru revenue only represented 50% of the stores business, order accuracy was a joke, the waits for food were painfully long, and it was often served cold. That is when management realized that they needed to get the drive thru right or they were going to miss out on millions in profit.

The folks at Taco Bell looked at every step of the process from how the order was taken and paid for, how the kitchen received and tracked the orders, the layout of the kitchen, how the “Food Champions” prepared each menu item, along with the menu items available. After years of hard work, performing a cost benefits analysis and time motion studies of every phase of the process, the industry made some serious changes. The QSR industry is now an example of American ingenuity and how a business can make quality products that meet the needs and expectations of their customers.

Drive-thru timer and efficiency clock.
Image Courtesy Techknow Inc.
gotechknow.com

Today a typical Taco Bell has a menu of over 400 menu items, while most restaurants work three shifts a day. Today everything is covered in great detail, when a new employee is hired they must successfully complete training on that position. As a “Service Champion” you learn there is only one way to greet a customer: “Hi, how are you today?” followed by “You may order when you’re ready.” Studies found that not only does this put customer first, it eliminates any stress they may be experiencing in their car (such as a 3 year old having a meltdown in the back seat). Each “Food Champion” is taught the correct way to make each item on the menu, along with the correct way to wrap tacos and burritos. This is done in order to make it easier for the customer to eat their item while minimizing the number of food wrappers a Taco Bell store must stock. It appears they have evaluated every detail to streamline the process and minimize costs. It is especially important because now in the Quick Serve Restaurant industry, over 70% of the revenue comes through the drive thru window.

Now how does this tie into the value of conducting Pumped System Assessments? I would consider the efficiency of the average pumped system today is where the fast food industry was in the 1990’s. These pumped systems are able to manufacturer products that the consumers want, but often there are too many unscheduled plant outages. Other outages and process inefficiencies occur while performing maintenance on certain items of equipment dominating the maintenance expenses, while training plant personnel, while maintaining a safe plant, while not causing an environmental problem. Not to mention the constant quest to increase plant reliability so the plant can produce more products, while reducing operating cost, maintenance cost and capitol costs.

The US Department of Energy has been the driving force behind the pumped system assessment standard. They hired a group of pump system consultants to conduct assessments at industrial plants in order to demonstrate ways of minimizing the operating costs for pumped systems. Much of what the DOE has learned while conducting these assessments has found its way into the official ASME Pump System Assessment Standard.

Fluid Fundamentals (an Engineered Software Business Unit) has developed our Pumped System Assessment and Optimization training class to show the piping and pumping system industry how to implement the ASME standard. The primary focus of the class is to show people how to determine the current annual operating cost of a pumped system and identify each cost in a Energy Cost Balance Sheet. With the current operating cost known, the plant can determine ways to improve the system operation to reduce the various cost items identified in the Energy Cost Balance Sheet. The final step is to document each assessment and determine the potential savings. Companies that have performed assessments have not only reduced their operating costs, but also discovered they can reduce their maintenance cost and increase the reliability of their pumped system.

The objective of the pumped system assessment program is to foster continued improvement with the plant. This is accomplished by evaluating each step of the process, looking for ways to minimize energy consumption, running the process more efficiently, and running the equipment around its best efficiency point. Taco Bell didn’t achieve their 164 second per order time, or 95% accuracy rate over night; it took hard work and a goal of achieving continued improvements to the process.

Thanks to all the efforts put into their process assessment and their inspiring goal of total efficiency, I now find myself thinking about ways to improve pumped system efficiency every time I order a Crunchwrap Supreme and diet soda at my local Taco Bell.

I would love it if you left a comment or even sent me an email to blogger @ eng-software.com. Also, we are currently welcoming guest bloggers. If you are interested, just send me a message about becoming a guest blogger, and what you would like to write about. Thanks!

My New Year’s Pumping Resolutions

Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes 22 seconds. Read Later

This year my New Year’s Resolutions are going to be a little different. Instead of making resolutions for myself I would like to make resolutions for all of my readers. These resolutions are appropriate for design engineers as well as owners and operators of pumped systems. Using this approach I don’t have to break any of my own resolutions, and if you wish to break them, then you shouldn’t feel any guilt either. But I promise these are for the good of your plant designs.

So here goes, my resolutions for YOU, and the pumps in YOUR plant.

1. “I resolve to get a copy of the manufacturer’s supplied pump curve for each centrifugal pump in my plant.”
• By having the pump curve, you will be able to determine if the pump is operating properly. The manufacturer’s supplied pump curve is the most important document needed for pump system maintenance, without it you are flying blind.
2. “I resolve to install pressure gages on the pump suction and pump discharge for each pump in my plant.”
• Having accurate pressure gages on the pump suction and discharge allows you to easily determine the differential pressure across each pump. When used in conjunction with the pump curve (acquired by resolution 1) you can determine the flow rate through the pump.
3. “I resolve to develop a means of determine the flow rate through a pump.”
• This one is very flexible, it can either be an installed meter (only if you have the cash), a clamp on Doppler meter, or determine the power supplied to the motor. Using the flow rate, the pump curve (resolution 1) and the differential pressure values (resolution 2) you’ll be able to determine if the pump is operating on the pump curve. This is very helpful in troubleshooting the operation of any centrifugal pump.
4. “I resolve to determine where each pump is operating in relation to the pumps Best Efficiency Point.”
• If the pumps operational flow rate is between 80% to 120% of the pumps BEP listed on the manufacturer’s pump curve (resolution 1) then that pump should have a long and prosperous life.
5. “I resolve to investigate all pump mechanical seal or bearing failures this year.”
• If the pump is not operating between 80% to 120% around the BEP (resolution 4) the cause of the failure is most likely due to shaft deflection cause by continually running the pump outside the pumps sweet spot.
6. “I resolve to look into performing a pumped system assessment per the ASME EA-2 Energy Assessment for Pumping Systems.”
• The standard can be purchased from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Website www.asme.org, or the Hydraulic Institute Website www.pumps.org.

If you follow all these resolution then your pumped systems (or your customer’s pumped systems) will be running efficiently. You’ll have reduced your operating costs, reduced your maintenance costs, or reduced your capitol cost, all while increasing your plants reliability and profitability. Now wouldn’t you feel better if you were able to keep these resolutions rather than sweating off a couple of pounds at the gym?

That’s my list, but I’d like to hear your professional New Year’s Resolution Lists. Maybe I forgot something on my list? On the other hand, maybe you have other goals for 2011? Leave me a comment or better yet, send me an email, as I have resolved this year to once again answer all questions or comments.

In addition if you would like to be a guest blogger let me know, always interested in finding out what others are thinking about.

Be a Better Pump Buyer: 5 Things You Should Know for Pump Purchases

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Working with our PUMP-FLO program I get the opportunity to talk to many people involved in the pump selection process. These discussions occur with pump buyers, pump manufacturers, and pump sellers.
When I get into discussions about finding the right pump, I notice that these discussions tend to start sounding like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You know the story, the Papa Bear’s porridge was too hot, Momma Bear’s porridge was too cold, but Baby Bear’s porridge is just right.
When I ask pump sellers about the amount of design details their customers give them for pump selection most of them say too little, some of them say too much, but very few say just right. It appears the answer is based on the market the pump supplier serves.

Meager Momma Bear
One common example is the pump buyer at a general industrial plant who may be purchasing a pump for a service system. This type of buyer most likely doesn’t provide sufficient information. For example a typical buyer might supply information like this:

• The buyer may say, “I need a 50 HP pump.” This doesn’t provide any help for the seller, but the buyer figures is as good a number as any to supply.
• A buyer may specify a pump size, say a 3x4-6. What they are telling the seller is: “I have a pump from another manufacturer that I’m having problems with and I would like to try one of yours.” More than likely, the pump is replacing an existing pump that failed because it was not originally sized properly for the application.
• Some buyers in this group may even provide a pump design point of head and flow value. This is a start but without specifying more information about the system, the pump sales person cannot get them the pump that is just right for their pumping application.

Papa Bear Information Overload
Buyers that specify too much information are typically working on application where they are specifying pumps for mission critical applications (power plants, refineries, chemical plants). It seems that some of these buyers provide the same level of details for all the pumps in a project, even the service water pumps, which are not nearly as critical an application.
In regards to specific pump details, the buyer should allow the pump seller to offer their recommendations for the best pump to meet their specified service conditions. By providing an excessive amount of pump details, the buyer may be excluding some of the sellers pump products that may be the best ones for their application.
There are circumstances where the buyer may want to use a specific pump standard such as API, ANSI, or FDA sanitary pumps. These standards are developed by a committee of pump suppliers and industrial pump users. The pump manufacturers that produce pumps adhering to specific standards all meet the requirement outlined in that standard.

So how much is Just Right? What does Baby Bear say?
How much information should you provide a pump sales rep when specifying a centrifugal pump? I asked some of my friends in the pump business to help me out on this one and here is what they said.

1. The first item in everyone’s list is to provide the standard pump design point items of pump head, flow rate, Net Positive Suction Head available (NPSHa), suction pressure, and discharge pressure.
2. Next are the properties of the liquid being pumped. This includes the liquid name, the fluid temperature, density or specific gravity, pH, viscosity, vapor pressure. If there is a wide range of operating temperatures involved, you should provide the above fluid properties for that range of temperatures. If there are any suspended or dissolved solids, you state that along with the amount and type of abrasives or other solids in the fluid stream.
3. If the pump is going to be called upon to operate under varying conditions you should specify the range of flow rates, and for each flow rate enter the head, NPSHa, and hours of operation at each condition. Often a design point given in step 1 is given for future requirements rather than the way the pump is expected to actually run. If that is the case, it is best to state that in the pump specification and then provide the expected conditions. This allows the pump supplier to choose a pump that can meet your future needs while operating efficiently at the current conditions. This information can be calculated using most manufacturers centrifugal pump selection software found on their Website, or at PUMP-FLO.com.
4. Installation details that should be supplied include the location of the installation, elevation above sea level, unusual ambient conditions, type of suction vessel or sump, along with any space or weight limitations. You can never supply too much detail on the installation.
5. Sharing Experiences. If you happen to lack experience with pumps in similar services, you can “go to school” on the pump manufacturer. Use their experience in these applications and ask sufficient questions about their products so you have an understanding of why they are making their recommendations. By asking multiple manufacturers the same questions, you will become an educated customer. Sharing experience is a two way street, for example if you have experience in a particular pumping application, say, material compatibility for a fluid being pumped, share it with the pump seller. That way they can “go to school” on your experiences. Remember life is too short for you to make all the mistakes, learn from others’ mistakes and save time.

One thing that I always consider great advice is that if the buyer has any questions as to their pumping applications or the recommended pump, pick up the phone and call the pump suppliers. They are very eager to answer your pump application questions. This gives the pump seller the opportunity to find out more about your application, and you can find out more about their products and how to properly apply their pumps. Remember by working together and getting the smartest people involved there is no limit as to what we can accomplish.
This article is a testament to this fact. I have been around centrifugal pumps all my working life, but I would not consider myself an expert. Much of this information came from pump people much smarter than me. I would especially like to thank Mike Volk, P.E. at Volk and Associates in Oakland CA, and Tom Angle of Weir Specialty Pump in Salt Lake City, UT for their detailed contributions to this article.
Now it’s time to hear from you. Do you have any tips or stories from past pump purchases? Share them! Please feel free to share your experiences, or opinions on this blog entry or any other subject that is of interest. I can be reached at blogger@eng-software.com.

If the Answer Doesn't Have Dollar Signs It's Just Another Number

In the past two years I have had the privilege to be a member of two committees involving landmarks for evaluating fluid piping system. Engineered Software is an associate member of the non-profit Hydraulic Institute, the trade association for pump manufacturers. In addition, we are a full member of Pump Systems Matters™, an offshoot of the Hydraulic Institute, dealing with the importance of Energy Savings, Efficiency and Economics of pumps and pumping systems.

Pump Systems Matters developed a book entitled Optimizing Pumping Systems, A Guide for Improved Energy Efficiency, Reliability & Profitability. I had the pleasure of being one of the contributors of this publication, and had the privilege of working with some of the best engineering in the industry. The underlying theme of the book is that when you optimize a piping system you will not only save energy but the system also becomes more reliable, while reducing maintenance costs and capitol costs. The Pump Systems Matters group created Pumping System Optimization: Opportunities to Improve Life Cycle Performance, a one day seminar based on the content of the book. I also have the pleasure of being a certified instructor of this excellent PSM developed seminar.

In conjunction with the work done with Pump System Matters, I was invited to join the American Society of Mechanical Engineers committee that developed the Energy Assessment for Pumping Systems (ASME EA-2-2009) standard. This standard provides a framework for conducting energy assessments, with the primary objective being how companies can set up their own energy assessment groups to help them conserve power in their process systems.

As you can see, energy and system efficiency are pretty important concepts to me. I spend much of my professional efforts on getting the message out to the piping system industry. By having more reliable piping systems that reduce the total cost of operation companies in North America are able to better compete in a global market. I look it as an opportunity to help businesses save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on energy cost while reducing our reliance on imported oil.

To help get the word out Engineered Software has developed Piping System Assessment and Optimization, a three day seminar that takes the framework of the ASME standard and develops a step-by-step method for performing energy assessment on a wide variety of pumping systems. When an attendee returns from the seminar, they have all the tools needed to start conducting energy assessments within their plant.

As a result of this work, one thing I find very interesting about my fellow engineers is that we all have a tendency to look at answers in force, pressure, head, and similar engineering concepts that only we can understand. In an energy assessment, the objective is to determine how much an existing pumped system costs to operate, and see what can be done to reduce the cost of operating and maintaining the system. In our class the motto is "If the answer doesn’t have a dollar sign it’s just another number." By measuring everything by its associated costs, everyone can easily understand the expenses and what can be done in the system to reduce costs.

For example if you can say that by trimming a ½ an inch off an impeller you can reduce pump head by 40 feet of total head you have a number that means something to a fellow engineer. But, if you can say by trimming a ½ inch off an impeller you are able to save your plant $180,000/year in pumping cost for a $3,000 one time investment, everyone within your plant understands the value of your efforts.

The nice thing about performing an energy assessment is they typically result in high dollar savings and have a quick payback with little or sometimes no outlay of capitol cost. Second reducing operating cost results in a direct savings to the bottom line. Finally they offer very little risk, because you can see how the current system is actually operating, then see what can be done to make the improvements. Notice in this paragraph I didn’t use ft of head, psi, or pump efficiency to explain the advantages. Instead I used dollars, savings, low risk, low capital outlays, and Bottom Line the most over used yet powerful word in the financial lexicon.

We will be conducting our first Piping System Assessment and Optimization seminar in April of this year and I'll let you know how in future blogs how things go.

And remember the easiest way to get someone’s attention is to have a dollar sign in the answer.

And now it’s time to hear from you. Please share your experiences, or opinions on this blog entry or any other subject that is of interest. I can be reached at blogger@eng-software.com.