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Plan53B external leak

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Sergey777

Mechanical
Oct 9, 2016
1
Hi everyone.
We have overhang pump with double mech seal. Plan 53B.
Ps=150kpa
Pd=690kpa
Fluid=amine(40%amine+60%water)
T=80C (but as per DS should be 46,5C)
Double mechanical tandem seal EagleBurgman.
As per EB datasheet seal chamber pressure 170kpa, Max.451kpa. So seal pressure 451+250=701kpa.(as per EB document for mech seal).
Barrier fluid=ethanol.
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Recently we met leak problem, external leak which is unacceptbale especially for 53B plan. During pump running barrier fluid pressure slowly decreasing, 15 days from 700kpa till 400kpa. When pump is not running - barrier fluid pressure stable and not decreasing. We did sampling during pump run and it revealed that the leak is amine! . As per vvisual inspection the leak is from outboard pair seal, because if leak was because of o-ring sealing the shaft, amine would appear from external side of set ring ( fixed on shaft by pins) , but this area is dry, while seal cover surface of mech.seal have traces of amine and somehow amine get on shaft and spraying around(plz see the picture) . So sampling shows That it is process fluid leak, but for me its not clear how its possible. Please advise.
 
 https://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=3c5c1b9d-7e9b-4d6a-a62e-3115b26dd00d&file=IMG_20181225_153043.jpg
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