Session F2G

PUMPX: An Expert System for Pump Diagnosis

Mario A. Garcia 1, John Clements2, and William Shelton3
Abstract - Diagnosing problems with centrifugal pumps usually requires personnel with extensive experience or education. Centrifugal pumps represent the largest power consumption of any type of liquid movers in industrialized countries. Diagnosis of problems with recommendations from a computerized assistant would be highly useful. This paper describes the implementation of PUMPX, an expert system for diagnosis of pump problems and for recommendation of corrective action. Four main symptoms are included: vibration/noise, high temperature, leaks and low performance. The use of this program can lead to utilization of lower experience personnel for diagnosis and can be used for training. The correct and timely diagnosis and correction of pump problems will lead to reduced power consumption and avoid unnecessary expenditures for upgrades. Index Terms - Centrifugal Pumps, Expert System, Inxight Tree. Knowledge Acquisition. INTRODUCTION This expert system is intended to assist in the diagnosis of centrifugal pump problems. Pumps are used to move liquids and constitute a major consumer of energy in industrialized countries. Pump capacity range is very wide. Small capacity pumps are used for medical and additive uses, taking as many as 17 days to pump one gallon. Large pumps are used in irrigation, municipal water supply and industrial uses. These are available in individual capacity as much as 100,000 gallons per minute, using many thousands of horsepower. Pumps can be divided into two classes: dynamic and positive displacement [13]. Centrifugal pumps are in the dynamic class. Centrifugal pumps may be divided into axial flow, mixed flow, and peripheral. This expert system is limited to axial flow centrifugal pumps. As pumps are used, they may wear or develop various mechanical problems. Experts are needed at each installation to diagnose these problems for repair, or consultants need to be employed for diagnosis. Many programs exist for the selection of pumps for new installations or upgrades. One example is from Goulds Pumps [8]. Another is available for the Palm hand held device. The mechanical and process engineering literature is replete with discussions of pumps, selection methods, and diagnosis methods, such as check lists [2, 13, 15]. Some of these methods include categories of symptoms and then items to check and/or causes. The goal of most of these systems is to identify the root cause [3]. Need For Expert System As noted above, experts are needed to diagnose problems with centrifugal pumps. These may be engineers with formal training, experienced operators, experienced maintenance personnel or consultants. Many industrial installations will have experts. Their time is, of course, limited and they command higher compensation. Smaller installations, for example, hospitals and schools, have limited resources. This expert system is designed to allow training of individuals, help for smaller installations and use by non-experts on a daily basis. Durkin [7] indicates that 25% of all expert systems are used for diagnosis and 14% are used in manufacturing. He reports that DuPont Chemical Company was saving $100,000,000 per year by using expert systems. PUMP SYSTEMS This expert system is limited to axial flow centrifugal pumps. A typical pump and electric motor is shown in Figure 1. The pump is on the right hand side, motor is on the left. In between these two devices, is the shaft coupling. This is required to transfer all the horsepower and torque from the motor to the pump. These are bolted to the baseplate, the channel shaped plate in Figure 1. The baseplate is normally attached to a concrete block called the base and secured by bolting and adding cement grout between the two. The base, baseplate and grout add rigidity to the pump/motor and prevent excessive motion between the pump/motor and the surrounding piping. A centrifugal pump works by rotating a plate, called an impeller, with liquid entering in the center and exiting the outer rim. This imparts velocity to the liquid. A cross section of a cantilevered, horizontal, end suction pump is shown in Figure 2. Liquid enters via the horizontal opening (1) and contacts the rotating impeller (2). It is confined by the casing (3), exiting via the discharge port (4). The increase in velocity is converted to an increase in pressure. Behind the impeller is the back plate (5). The shaft (6) is carried by bearings (7). These bearings typically run in an oil bath (8). There may be a cooling chamber for the bearing oil (9). The rotating shaft and stationary parts are connected via a seal (10). All of these are subject to wear and may need to be examined, repaired and/or replaced.

1 2

Mario A. Garcia, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Corpus Christi TX, 78413, garciam@falcon.tamucc.edu John Clements, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Corpus Christi TX, 78413 3 William Shelton, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Corpus Christi TX, 78413

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Cavitation can be caused by a restriction in the suction piping, low level in a feed tank or by a hot liquid. A calculation is used to determine if the Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH) required by the particular pump exists. NPSHR is calculated by taking the atmospheric pressure and converting to feet of liquid, adding the level in the feed tank, subtracting the loss in the suction piping and subtracting the vapor pressure of the liquid. The expert system prompts for all these values and calculates the result, the Net Positive Suction Head Available, NPSHA. The NPSHA must exceed the NPSHR or there will be a cavitation problem. The expert system recommends action to correct this, if found. This expert system works by eliciting responses to observed problems. Some of these symptoms are solvable by mechanical correction, others require process change, such as raising the feed tank level. The categories of symptoms in this expert system are: vibration/noise, overheating, leaks and low performance.

FIGURE 1 HORIZONTAL CENTRIFUGAL PUMP AND MOTOR

Low performance is evaluated by comparing current performance with manufacturers data. Manufactures data is contained on a pump curve. A typical pump curve is shown in Figure 3. This graph contains a wealth of information including, the pump manufacturers name, pump size and model number, speed, smallest and largest impeller size and impeller version. This is basically a plot of pressure developed in feet of liquid pumped (1) versus the quantity of liquid pumped (2). Each different impeller size produces a different head/flow curve (3). Plotted on this graph is the horsepower required at each head/flow point (4) and Net positive suction head required (NPSHR) is plotted versus flow (5). Testing usually consists of placing a pressure gauge on the suction and discharge sides of the pump while the liquid is flowing. At the same time, power readings are taken. This is repeated while the discharge valve is closed. This latter test yields the values at dead head. The pressure in psi is multiplied by 2.31 feet per psi and divided by the liquid specific gravity to yield feet of liquid. These two values are subtracted to give the increase in feet of liquid from the pump, the pump delta value. This expert system prompts for the pressure gauge readings and calculates the feet of liquid. Many diagnoses can be made from these results. For example, if the delta is lower than that shown on the curve or that size and speed of impeller, the impeller may be worn; if the dead head delta is low and the power is high, it may show an excessive amount of clearance between the impeller and back plate. As the impeller is rotated, it generates a low pressure area in the center, with an increase at the periphery. As the liquid flows into the center of the impeller, flow generates pressure drop. If the pressure drop is high enough, it can generate vaporization of the liquid. This is cavitation and leads to low flow and excessive wear to the impeller.

FIGURE 2 HORIZONTAL CENTRIFUGAL PUMP CROSS SECTION

EXPERT SYSTEMS Expert systems are computer programs that incorporate a large amount of knowledge in a very specific field and are used to give advice or solve problems. These incorporate knowledge of experts and attempt to simulate the reasoning process. These programs contain a heuristic to imitate the experts use of the knowledge and seek to distribute the experts knowledge and reasoning to a wider audience. Hall [9] indicates the most successful expert systems are applied to problems with limited domains and well-defined expertise.

0-7803-8552-7/04/$20.00 2004 IEEE October 20 23, 2004, Savannah, GA 34th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference F2G-2

Session F2G
The various levels in the flowcharts have been represented in Inxight Tree Studio [11], as it is shown in figure 4. Main symptoms are: vibration/noise, overheating, leaks and low performance. Each of these symptoms then results in a series of questions that leads to a diagnosis or no diagnosis response. The expert system also may recommend corrections.

FIGURE 3 PUMP PERFORMANCE CURVE

An expert system should exhibit high performance and reliability, be flexible and user friendly and be well tested. Acceptance by users is highly dependent on and easy-to-use user interface, correctness of results and perception that the expert system reduces the workload and/or has a demonstrable savings [5,12,17.] This expert system is rulebased. Rules are evaluated to be true or false and it employs the closed world assumption that if something is not known to be true then it is false. This assumption is good for physical problems according to Hopgood [10] Knowledge Acquisition One of the authors of this paper works in the industrial field and has worked in the application for many years. A number of references were consulted concerning pump application and diagnosis [2,13,15]. Individual manufacturers often produce troubleshooting guides for their products. Cooke [6,8] summarizes the acquisition interview process in excellent form. Many check lists and other aids have been developed to assist the technician. Check lists, and other aids have been summarized in a set of flowchart style blocks similar to decision trees [1]. These were then used to establish rules for the expert system. Also these were used to verify the expert system. Knowledge Representation

FIGURE 4. KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION IN INXIGHT TREE

Knowledge Implementation TPUMPX was implemented in CLIPS. Rules were developed from the flowchart style block structure. The user is prompted for the main symptom, such as vibration, low flow, etc. and then the expert system asks the user questions. From these responses, a particular branch of the flowchart is followed and then the diagnosis response given or a no diagnosis response given. CLIPS code for the main menu and example rules are shown in figure 5. (defrule main-menu (declare (salience 100)) ?f1 <- (pump (main-symptom nil)) => (bind ?response (ask-question "What type of problem would you like to diagnose? 1. Overheating 2. Poor Performance 3. Noise / Vibration 4. Fluid Leak 5. Exit PumpEx Please choose an option (1-5):" 1 2 3 4 5)) (switch ?response (case 1 then (modify ?f1 (main-symptom overheating)))

0-7803-8552-7/04/$20.00 2004 IEEE October 20 23, 2004, Savannah, GA 34th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference F2G-3

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(case 2 then (modify ?f1 (main-symptom performance))) (case 3 then (modify ?f1 (main-symptom vibration))) (case 4 then (modify ?f1 (main-symptom leak))) (case 5 then (halt)) (default none)) )
FIGURE 5 A RULE IN CLIPS Management and Decision Making for the 21st Century, Volume 1, Academic Press, San Diego, California, 2002, pp 54-75. [2] Baumiester, Theodore, Avallone, Eugene A. and Baumiester, Theodore III, Marks Mechanical Engineers Handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1996. Bellinger, G., Root Cause Analysis, available on the Internet at www.outsights.com/systmes/rca/rootca.htm, accessed April 2, 2003. Bergmann, Ralph, Breen, Sean, Goker, Mehmet, Manago, Michel and Wess, Stefan, Developing Industrial Case-Based Reasoning Applications, The INRECA Methodology, Springer, 1999, pp 9-34. Bobrow, D. G., Mittal, S. and Stefik, M. J. Expert Systems: Perils and Promise, Communications of the ACM, vol 29, number 9 [1986]. Cooke, Nancy J., The Elicitation of Domain-Related Ideas; Stage One of the Knowledge Acquisition Process, in Ellis, Charlie, Expert Knowledge and Explanation, the Knowledge-Language Interface, Ellis Horwood, Chichester, West Sussex, England, 1989, pp 58-75. Durkin, John, History and Applications and Tools and Applications, in Leondes, Cornelius T., Expert Systems The Technology of Knowledge Management and Decision Making for the 21st Century, Volume 1, Academic Press, San Diego, California, 2002, pp 1-50. Goulds Pumps, Division of ITT Industries, Pump Selection Software, available on Goulds Web site at http://www.goulds.com/software.asp, accessed April 27, 2003. Hall, Lawrence O. and Kandel, Abraham, The Evolution from Expert Systems to Fuzzy Expert Systems, in Kandel, Abraham, ed. Fuzzy Expert Systems, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida 1992, pp 3- 22.

[3] [4]

Testing This expert system was tested by following each branch in the Inxight Tree answering each question presented by PUMPX in each possible way and checking if it gave the correct response based on the flowcharts. In each case, it did give the correct response. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS PUMPX incorporates many of the diagnostic check lists and flowcharts of manufacturers, the literature and experts. It includes in one program, a method for trained and untrained people to obtain probable diagnosis with a high level of confidence. It includes a user-friendly interface. It operates fast with currently available personal computer hardware. This expert system is based on rules. Another approach is case-based reasoning where additional instances and results are input and the expert system develops rules based on these successful solutions [4,14]. This might be a useful extension to this expert system. A recent example is: a pump was noisy, producing a widely swinging pressure, the control valve was 100% open and had a reputation of not working. PUMPEX quickly diagnosed the problem from the swinging pressure and noise and diagnosed that the feed tank level might be low. The problem was corrected and the Pump has been performing well. The opinion of others prior to this diagnosis was that the pumps had to be replaced or the discharge line replaced at a cost of at least $50,000. This cost was saved. If this expert system had been in place, operating personnel could have made this diagnosis and fixed it immediately. It is believed this condition existed for at least a year. Future Work This expert system would be a natural application for network. Also, it would be good to have the ability to run this on a local tablet personal computer or handheld Palm type personal digital assistant. Even more useful, would be to use this at the pump with the manufacturers pump curve preloaded or accessible on the handheld device. All of these would require implementation on a Web-based language such as JESS, access to the facilities manufacturers database and possibly a wireless network. REFERENCES
[1] [Allmuallim, Hussein, Kaneda, Shigeo and Akiba, Yasuhiro, Development and Applications of Decision Trees in Leondes, Cornelius T, Expert Systems The Technology of Knowledge [5] [6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10] Hopgood, Adrian A., Intelligent Systems for Engineers and Scientists, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 2001, pp 1- 45, 265-311. [11] Inxight Studio Tree Software, Inxight Corporation, available at www. inxight.com, accessed April 1, 2003. [12] Jagodzinski, A. P. and Holmes, S. H., Expert Systems Acceptability: Human and Organizational Contexts of Expert Systems, in Ellis, Charlie, Expert Knowledge and Explanation, the Knowledge-Language Interface, Ellis Horwood, Chichester, West Sussex, England, 1989, pp 226 241. [13] Karassik, Igor J., Krutzsch, William C., Fraser, Warren H. and Mesina, Joseph P., Pump Handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1986, chapters 1, 2, 8, 12, and 13. [14] Leake, David B. editor, Case-Based Reasoning, Experiences, Lessons and Future Directions, AAIA Press/The MIT Press, Menlo Park, California, 1996. [15] Perry, Chemical Engineers Handbook, Seventh Edition, MacGrawHill, New York 1987. [16] Process Ace Software, Pump Calculations for the Palm, details available via the Internet at www.processacesoftware.com/pump_calulations_help.html, accessed April 2, 2003. [17] Prerau, David S., Developing and Managing Expert Systems, Proven Techniques for Business and Industry, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1990, pp 100- 106.

0-7803-8552-7/04/$20.00 2004 IEEE October 20 23, 2004, Savannah, GA 34th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference F2G-4