Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 321–328

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Engineering Failure Analysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Strength analysis of a large centrifugal dredge pump case

Peng Guangjie a,1, Wang Zhengwei a,*, Yan Zongguo a, Liu Ruixiang b
a
Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
b
Tianjin Dredging Company, Tianjin 300042, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Cracks in the cases of large dredge pumps have limited their performance. This paper
Received 13 March 2008 describes optimization of the pump case design using a finite element analysis. The stress
Accepted 28 May 2008 concentrations usually occur on the ribs or above the ribs. Therefore, the stress character-
Available online 12 June 2008
istics of the pump case were analyzed for several conditions with different thicknesses and
placements of the strengthened ribs. The optimized result found by removing or shortening
Keywords: the ribs has a maximum stress in the pump case which is far less than the material is allow-
Dredge pump
able stress. The simulation results were verified in a 2 MPa hydrostatic pressure test in
Strength analysis
Crack
which no crack appeared and predicted the distortion in the axial direction agreed well
Finite element analysis with the test result. Therefore, this method can be used to improve the designs of large
dredge pump cases.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Dredge pumps develop high flow rates and high heads with complex operation conditions that create high bearing pres-
sures in the pump case. Thus, cracks can develop the material properties or the structural design is inappropriate. Leakage of
pump will then occur which endangers both the staff and the equipment. The crack showed in Fig. 1 developed during pump
operation and will grow if the pump worked is used further. ANSYS was used in three-dimension finite element analysis of
several pump case designs calculate the distortions and stresses for the service load. The placement and thickness of the ribs
on the pump case were modified to improve the stress characteristics [1,2].

2. Basic theory

2.1. Finite element computation

The stresses were calculated at finite locations using the finite element analysis based on the displacement method. The
force equilibrium equation is:

½Kfug ¼ fFg; ð1Þ

where K is the rigidity matrix, u are the node displacements and F is the external applied force on a node. The displacements,
u, found by solving Eq. (1) are then used to calculate all stresses and strains [3].

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 10 62791262.

E-mail address: wzw@tsinghua.edu.cn (W. Zhengwei).
1
Present address: State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

1350-6307/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2008.05.015
322 P. Guangjie et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 321–328

Fig. 1. Crack developed during operation of a dredge pump.

2.2. Strength theory

Many experimental results have shown that fourth-order strength theory can suitably describe yielding of plastic mate-
rials such as steel, copper and aluminum. Therefore, it is applied universally in engineering analyses such as to analyze the
stress characteristics of a dredge pump case. The Misses stresses can then be calculated from the fourth-order strength result
as:
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1h i
rs ¼ ðr1  r2 Þ2 þ ðr2  r3 Þ2 þ ðr3  r1 Þ2 6 r0 ð2Þ
2

3. Strength analysis of preliminary outer case design

3.1. Model

The dredge pump configuration shown in Fig. 2 uses a double-case configuration within outer case including the pump
case, large pump cover and small pump cover, and the inner case including the sleeve and fender. The flow capacity is
16,000–25,000 m3/h at heads of 25–80 m. When the pump is in operation, the outer pressure cavity is filled with water
to a pressure Pout to approximately balance Pin (the pressure of the liquid inside the runner) because the sleeve material
is wears and is brittle with an allowable stress lower than that of cast steel. The pump head configuration is shown in
Fig. 3. The outer case is made of cast steel to endure more pressure and is as light as possible because the pump is used
on a ship.
The stresses in the bolts connecting the pump case, large pump cover and small pump cover was easily shown to not be
excessive the finite element analysis must include the pump case, large pump cover and small pump cover together to accu-
rately calculate the stress characteristics of the integrated outer case. The simplified calculational model of outer case is
shown in Fig. 4.

3.2. Grid

The analysis used the solid92 cell chosen in ANSYS which is a tetrahedron, as shown in Fig. 5, with 10 nodes, with each
node having three degrees of freedom. Finite element grid figure shown in Fig. 6 included 158,642 cells and 128,731 nodes.

3.3. Calculational parameters and boundary conditions

The bearing force on the outer case includes the pressure of the lumen area and the weight of the sleeve, fender and outer
case during pump operation. The load bearing areas on the pump case are the fixed supports shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 2. Pump configuration.

 P. Guangjie et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 321–328 323

Fig. 3. Pump head configuration.

Fig. 4. Three-dimensional view of calculational model.

Fig. 5. Solid92 cell model.

3.3.1. Weight loading on the sleeve and pump case

The sleeve weight is born by the outer case, as G = 141.91 kN. The force born by the sleeve is only on the top part of the
torus as shown in Fig. 7. Assuming a loading are of 120° around the line of symmetry:

P ¼ P cos /;
F
P ¼   ð/ is semi-angle of the sector in Fig:7Þ
2 /2 þ sin42/ RL
324 P. Guangjie et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 321–328

Fig. 6. Finite element grid.

Fig. 7. Forces on the volute and pump case.

Fig. 8. Forces diagram for the pump case and pump cover.
 P. Guangjie et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 321–328 325

 ¼ F where F is resultant force on the pivot, L is torus length, and R is torus radius. The pressure is applied
When / = 60°, P 1:48 RL
normal to the torus surface over the entire 120°. Thus, for L = 0.1085 m and R = 1.315 m and F = G/2 = 70.96 kN,
 ¼ 336:04  103 Pa.
P
The weight of the pump case can be added at each node.

3.3.2. Lumen pressure loading

The bearing pressure on the outer case includes Pout and the pressure forces due to P1, P2, P3, P4, P5 and P6 shown in
Fig. 8. The dredge pump is a two-stage serial-running system with a maximum inner pressure, Pin, of the second stage reach-
ing 2.0 MPa; thus Pout can be 2.0 MPa. The pressure forces due to P1, P2, P3, P4, P5 and P6 can be calculated from the surface
forces on surfaces a, b, c, d, e and f pressure of surfaces a, b, c, d, e and f. The pressure forces on these surfaces from experience
are listed in Table 1.

3.3.3. Material characteristics

The cast steel ZG230-450 chosen as the material for the pump case, large pump cover and small pump cover has the stress
properties listed in Table 2. The calculations used a density of 7.8  103 kg/m3, an elastic modulus of 2.1  1011 Pa and Pois-
son’s ratio of 0.27.

Table 1
Pressure forces on six indirect force surfaces (unit: MPa)

Working pressure Surface a Surface b Surface c Surface d Surface e Surface f

2 2 1.2 0.3 2 0.8 0.2
2.5 2.5 1.7 0.3 2.5 1.2 0.2

Table 2
ZG230-450 properties

Density (kg/m3) Elastic modulus (Pa) Poisson’s ratio Allowable stress (MPa)
7.8  103 (2–2.2)  1011 0.25–0.29 230

Fig. 9. Stress concentration at the radial ribs for an operating pressure of 2.0 MPa (maximum stress is 205 MPa).

Fig. 10. Stress concentration at the annular ribs for an operating pressure of 2.0 MPa (maximum stress is 159 MPa).
326 P. Guangjie et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 321–328

Fig. 11. Stress distribution without radial ribs for an operating pressure of 2.5 MPa.

3.4. Results and analysis

The predicted stress distribution for an operating pressure of 2.0 MPa are shown in Figs. 9–11. The stress concentrations
occur where the radial ribs are attached to the pump cover, with a maximum stress of 205 MPa, which is close to the allow-
able stress. There is another stress concentration area on the annular ribs, as shown in Fig. 10, with a maximum stress of
159 MPa. Thus both of these areas should be improved.

4. Improved design

4.1. Subtract the outer radial ribs and change the thickness of outer annular ribs

The maximum stress and the stress concentration area were reduced by removing the outer radial ribs and changing the
thickness of the outer annular ribs.
The preliminary results show that the main reason for the stress concentration where the outer radial ribs attach to the
pump cover is that ribs limits the deformation of the pump cover. Therefore, the stress concentration is unavoidable when
the pump cover has radial ribs. Analyses also showed that widening of the outer annular ribs did not change the location of
the stress concentration at the base of the ribs with a maximum stress of 205 MPa at the operating pressure of 2.0 MPa. How-
ever, both the maximum stress and the size of the stress concentration area around the outer annular ribs near the pump
outlet were reducing. Therefore, the outer radial ribs were completely removed to reduce the stresses in the pump cover.
As a result, the high stress area disappeared and the maximum stress in the outer annular ribs decreased from 159 MPa
to 133 MPa. For an operating pressure, Pin, of 2.5 MPa, the maximum stresses in the stress concentration area was170 MPa.
The stress distributions without radial ribs are shown in Figs. 11 and 12. Thus, the stresses in the dredge pump case are the
less than the allowable values at an operating pressure of 2.5 MPa.

Fig. 12. Stress concentrated area around annular ribs near the outlet for an operating pressure of 2.5 MPa (maximum stress is 170 MPa).
 P. Guangjie et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 321–328 327

Fig. 13. Flattened pump bottom design.

Fig. 14. Stress concentrated area around the vertical ribs at the pump bottom.

4.2. Improved bottom rib design

The pump installation requires that the distance between the centerline and the bottom of the pump be minimized. Con-
sequently, the pump cover and the bottom of the pump were flattened as shown in Fig. 13.
The stresses in the ribs at the bottom of the pump case are shown in the left part of Fig. 14. The stress concentration area
is located on the ends of the ribs with a maximum stress of 195 MPa, above the acceptable stress. Based on the experience
with shrinking the radial ribs, the two ribs were shortened as shown in right part of Fig. 14, with the maximum stress re-
duced to 171 MPa. The high stresses in the neighbouring two ribs disappeared and the calculated result can deemed.

5. Experimental results

The carrying capacity of the new pump case design shown in Fig. 15 was tested hydrostatically 2.0 Mpa water pressure in
the pressure chamber between the inner shell and the case for 5 min. No cracks developed and the maximum distortion of
the pump cover in the axial direction was 3.0 mm which agrees well with the finite element analysis prediction of 2.91 mm.

Fig. 15. Hydraulic pressure experiment.

328 P. Guangjie et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 321–328

6. Conclusions

When excessive distortion occurs in a structure or local stresses exceed the design stress, ribs are often added to reinforce
the surface. However, the ribs can then cause stress concentration and the possibility of cracks if the designs are not appro-
priate. Therefore, the proper placement of the reinforcing ribs needs to be carefully studied.
The test results show that the stresses in a dredge pump case can be accurately analyzed using a finite element analysis
with reasonable boundary conditions. Here simulations were used to optimize the sizes and locations of ribs on the outside
of a dredge pump to eliminate cracking of the casing. The analyses improve the design efficiency and cut the experimental
costs. The results show that the radial ribs should be removed and that the annular ribs and the bottom ribs should be rede-
sign to reduce the stresses in the pump casing.

References

[1] Bouchard PJ, Goldthorpe MR, Prottey P. J-integral and local damage fracture analyses for a pump casing containing large weld repairs. Int J Pressure
Vessels and Piping 2001;78(4):295–305.
[2] Javed Hyder M, Asif M. Optimization of location and size of opening in a pressure vessel cylinder using ANSYS. Eng Failure Anal 2008;15(1–2):1–19.
[3] Wang ZW, Luo YY, Zhou LJ, Xiao RF, Peng GJ. Computation of dynamic stresses in piston rods caused by unsteady hydraulic loads. Eng Failure Anal
2008;15(1–2):28–37.