Axial thrust

Axial thrust refers to the unbalanced force acting on the rotor of a pump that tends
to displace it in an axial direction, or along the axis of its rotation. It is usually
expressed in pound unit.
In horizontal pump, the axial thrust is almost always hydraulic in nature, caused by
the pressure of the pumped liquid. (In very rare instances, the driver can also
transmit dynamic axial thrust to the pump.)
In vertical pump, the axial thrust is a combination of both hydraulic and static
forces. The static component is due to the rotor weight, and acts downward. The
hydraulic axial load acts in either upward, or downward, direction depending on
suction pressure and differential head of the pump.
The direction of axial thrust can be toward one side only (along the axis of its
rotation), or it can reverse direction alternately if there is a change in the pump's
operating conditions.
The thrust load is carried by the pump's thrust bearing which is usually of the
anti-friction (ball bearing) type. The thrust bearing should be capable of carrying
reversing thrust, if applicable.
In situations where the thrust load is high, two or more bearings may be stacked
together to carry the thrust load. If it is not possible to do this because of space
limitation in the bearing housing, some other design changes can be done.
These may include the addition of balance holes on the impeller, changing the
balance diameter of the impeller wear rings, changing the diameter of balance
drum, changing the size of the mechanical seal, adding bleed-off connection, etc.,
depending on pump type and size. These actions are collectively referred to as
axial thrust balancing.

What is a Balance Disk/Drum?

faq407-1306
Posted: 10 Feb 07
In any centrifugal pump, each impeller tends to produces some amount of thrust because of different
pressures and different geometries on the two sides of the impeller. In a high pressure multi-stage
pump (such as BFW) the number of impellers is high, thus the net thrust would be large unless
something is done to balance it out. The two main ways to reduce the net thrust are to oppose the
impellers or to use a balance disk/drum. For axial split pumps, it is usually most economic to oppose
the impellers. About half of the stages are oriented with the suction pointing toward the coupling and
the rest are oriented with the suction toward the thrust bearing. The thrust of the stages pointed in
opposite directions tend to cancel out. The net thrust that the thrust bearing must take is much
smaller than it would be if they all pointed in the same direction.
But axial split cases tend to have an upper pressure limit. At very high pressures, barrel pumps are
used since they can handle the very high pressures better. With a barrel pump, it is much more
difficult to find a good way to direct the flow path through a set of opposed impellers. So instead, they
point all the impellers in the same direction and use a balance disk or drum on the end. The balance
disk is just after the last stage so it has full discharge pressure on one side. A line is routed from the
other side of the balance disk back to the suction. The size of the drum is made so that it provides
almost as much net thrust as all the impellers combined. Area times pressure difference between

suction and discharge equals thrust force. Since there is a very high pressure differential across the
balance disk/drum, it is critical that the clearances are correct or else excessive flow will be diverted
back to suction and the thrust balancing force will be lost. In other words, if the balance drum/disk
fails, a thrust bearing failure is likely to follow.
The difference between a balance disk and a balance drum is whether the primary pressure drop is
taken across a radial clearance (drum) or an axial face (disk). Some pumps use a combination
drum/disk that incorporates both radial and axial clearances.