Investigation of pipelines integrity associated with pump modules vibration for pumping station 9 of alyeska pipeline service company

Abstract

Since the operation of PS09 SR module in 2007, it has been observed that there is vibration in various parts of the structures, on various segments of piping, and on appurtenance items. At DOT Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) request, ORNL Subject Matter Experts support PHMSA in its review and analysis of the observed vibration phenomenon. The review and analysis consider possible effects of pipeline design features, vibration characteristics, machinery configuration, and operating practices on the structural capacity and leak tight integrity of the pipeline. Emphasis is placed on protection of welded joints and machinery against failure from cyclic loading. A series of vibration measurements were carried out by the author during the site visit to PS09, the power of the operating pump during the data collection is at about 2970KW, which is less than that of APSC's vibration data collected at 3900KW. Thus, a first order proportional factor of 4900/2970 was used to project the measured velocity data to that of APSC's measurement of the velocity data. It is also noted here that the average or the peak-hold value of the measured velocity data was used in the author's reported data, and only the maximum peak-hold data was used in APSC's reported data. Therefore, in some cases APSC's data is higher than the author's projective estimates that using the average data. In general the projected velocity data are consistent with APSC's measurements; the examples of comparison at various locations are illustrated in the Table 1. This exercise validates and confirms the report vibration data stated in APSC's summary report. After the reinforcement project for PS09 Station, a significant reduction of vibration intensity was observed for the associated pipelines at the SR Modules. EDI Co. provided a detailed vibration intensity investigation for the newly reinforced Pump Module structures and the associated pipelines. A follow-up review of EDI's report was carried out by the author. The comments and questions regarding the EDI report are categorized into four subjects, namely (1) piping vibration severity, (2) pulsation and its impact on the PS09 structure and piping, (3) strain-gage stress history profiles, and (4) the cavitation potential investigation, where the questions are stated at the end of the comments for further follow-on investigations.