Abstract
Statistical results for about 5000 failures in two large petrochemical plants are presented in terms of life distributions and Weibull plots. A digest of some previous statistically based analyses is included with some comparisons with the new data.
In broad terms, seal lives are improving as compared with previous surveys and at one plant about a half of seals installed had not failed after 1000 days life. (This is a calendar life which cannot directly be related to running time.)
The type of fluid sealed has a 6:1 effect comparing the best and worst average lives.
General trends show a Weibull index of `0.8 for both water and hydrocarbons and roughly self similar failure distributions, though with differing Weibull characteristic lives.
Cost data is presented showing how total cost of a seal installation varies with seal life and relating labour costs to component costs.
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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Conner, P.A., Thew, M.T. (1992). A Statistical Review of Mechanical Seal Failures in Process Plant Pumps. In: Nau, B.S. (eds) Fluid Sealing. Fluid Mechanics and its Applications, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2412-6_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2412-6_23
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