Estimating production and booster pump location for long distance pumping
Conference Paper
Overview
Overview
abstract
The dredging of sediments to restore wetlands, marshes, provide coastal protection, and reclaim land often requires long distance pumping with large cutter suction dredges. Software has been developed that allows the production engineer to estimate the dredge production for long pipelines and the location of the booster pumps to reach distances previously unattainable. New dredge pumps are larger and more efficient which has increased the distance to which the sediment water mixture can be pumped. The large cutter suction dredges tend to use spud carriages for advancing which increases dredge efficiency. Software is described that calculates the system head and determines the intersection of the system head curve and the pump head curve. The production is then calculated using the flow rate at the intersection, the concentration by volume and the estimated maximum slurry specific gravity. The production decreases as the pipeline length decrease. At a pipeline length, the production drops to zero indicating the maximum length of the pipeline and the system head losses exceed the available pump head. The software allows for the insertion of booster pumps and their location is determined such that the pressure is always positive at the next pump. Several examples of long distance pumping are illustrated to demonstrate the utility of the software. The Microsoft Excel software is used that makes it easier to be used by others. This software was developed over the years at the Center for Dredging Studies at Texas A&M University. 2013 WODA.
