Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Westinghouse Government Services Company LLC

Charles P Nyilas

Richard F Guardiani

Joseph M Kujawski

Clifford H Campen, Jr

Richard Duane Pollick

Robert M Slepian

Timothy J Denmeade

Alvin R Keeton

Miklos C Zerinvary

A pressure compensator for a sub-sea pumping system for pumping an effluent from a deep-sea wellhead comprising a topside module, a sub-sea module, and an umbilical connection between the topside and sub-sea modules. Hydraulic fluid is circulated through the sub-sea module for cooling and lubricating the motor and the pump. The hydraulic cooling and lubricating fluid is preferably a single hydraulic fluid that is compatible with the effluent being pumped. The hydraulic fluid is circulated through a submerged pressure compensator which may include a bellows assembly. The pressure compensator is responsive to the pressure of the effluent being pumped and pressurizes the hydraulic cooling and lubricating fluid to a pressure above the pressure of the effluent. The pressure compensator also responds when the volume of hydraulic cooling and lubricating fluid in the system is reduced or increased, such as by leakage or thermal expansion, in order to maintain the pressure of the hydraulic fluid.

Sub-sea pumping system and associated method including pressure

A sub-sea pumping system for pumping an effluent from a deep-sea wellhead comprising a topside module, a sub-sea module, and an umbilical connection between the topside and sub-sea modules. The umbilical connection comprises a threephase electrical power line and an hydraulic fluid supply line to an electrical canned motor. The hydraulic fluid is a single medium fluid, is compatible with the effluent being pumped, and is circulated through the sub-sea module for cooling and for lubricating the seal and bearing arrangements of the motor and the pump. The hydraulic fluid is circulated through a submerged pressure compensator which includes a metal bellows assembly. The compensator is responsive to the pressure of the effluent being pumped and pressurizes the hydraulic fluid flowing through the motor and the pump for the cooling and the lubricating of their respective seal and bearing arrangements at a pressure above the pressure of the effluent being pumped.

Sub-sea pumping system and an associated method including pressure

A transfer pump used in a waste tank for transferring high-level radioactive liquid waste from a waste tank and having a column assembly, a canned electric motor means, and an impeller assembly with an upper impeller and a lower impeller connected to a shaft of a rotor assembly. The column assembly locates a motor housing with the electric motor means adjacent to the impeller assembly which creates an hydraulic head, and which forces the liquid waste, into the motor housing to cool the electric motor means and to cool and/or lubricate the radial and thrust bearing assemblies. Hard-on-hard bearing surfaces of the bearing assemblies and a ring assembly between the upper impeller and electric motor means grind large particles in the liquid waste flow. Slots in the static bearing member of the radial bearing assemblies further grind down the solid waste particles so that only particles smaller than the clearances in the system can pass therethrough, thereby resisting damage to and the interruption of the operation of the transfer pump. The column assembly is modular so that sections can be easily assembled, disassembled and/or removed. A second embodiment employs a stator jacket which provides an alternate means for cooling the electric motor means and lubricating and/or cooling the bearing assemblies, and a third embodiment employs a variable level suction device which allows liquid waste to be drawn into the transfer pump from varying and discrete levels in the waste tank.

Submersible canned motor transfer pump

A submersible, single phase electromagnetic pumping assembly (10) for liquid metal is made, which contains a submersible pump section (16) and a nonsubmersible pump section (18) connected by a hollow conduit (20) where single phase electromagnetic windings (22 and 24) are disposed in each pump section, providing a two stage pumping assembly, and an eddy current blocking electromagnetic winding (22 and 24), providing liquid flow orifices unoccupied by the structure within each pump section near the winding, and where the single phase coils can create a pulsed, standing magnetic wave within each liquid flow orifice.

Submersible single phase electromagnetic pumping assembly for liquid

A composite nozzle assembly for conducting a flow of molten steel in an electromagnetic valve is provided which comprises an inner nozzle shell formed from a ceramic material having high erosion-resistance but which undergoes internal tensile stresses of a magnitude sufficient to promote cracking when subjected to the thermal stresses caused by the flow of the molten metal, in combination with an outer nozzle shell that contains and closely engages the inner nozzle shell for applying a compressive load to the inner nozzle shell upon the initial flow of the molten metal through the shell in order to counteract the thermally induced tensile stresses and thereby prevent cracking. The outer nozzle shell is preferably formed from a ceramic material having superior thermal shock properties but yet which has a thermal coefficient of expansion about the same as that associated with the ceramic material forming the inner nozzle shell to minimize stresses at the interface of the inner and outer shells after thermal steady state has been attained. Additionally, the relative thickness of the outer nozzle shell is between about three and ten times that of the inner shell. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the inner shell is formed from zirconia, while the outer shell is formed from boron nitride.

Composite nozzle assembly for conducting a flow of molten metal in an

A pump having a shaft and housing containing pressurized system fluid variable between low pressure at pump startup and high pressure at pump operation, employs a hydrostatic sealing assembly for sealably and rotatably mounting the shaft within the housing. In the assembly, both a runner mounted around the shaft for rotation therewith and a seal ring mounted to the housing have facing surfaces between which pressurized system fluid creates a flowing low pressure fluid film which prevents contact between the facing surfaces so long as a predetermined minimum leakrate is maintained therebetween. First and third seal ring surfaces face in opposite directions with the second surface facing in the same direction as faced by the seal ring facing surface. First and second chambers are defined contiguous to the first and second surfaces with the first chamber in communication with pressurized system fluid and isolated from the second chamber and with the latter isolated from the runner and seal ring facing surfaces. Pressurized balance fluid provided to the second chamber via a passage through the housing from the exterior thereof is at a balance pressure greater than the supply pressure of the system fluid such that the balance pressure is effective at pump startup when the supply pressure is low, and ineffective at pump operation when the supply pressure is high, to counter a seating force imposed on the seal ring first surface by the supply pressure and augment a lifting force imposed on the seal ring facing surface by the supply pressure so that at both pump startup and operation leakrates are produced between the runner and seal ring facing surfaces which are above the predetermined minimum.

Reactor coolant pump hydrostatic sealing assembly with externally

A pump having a shaft and a housing containing pressurized fluid variable in pressure between pump startup and operation, employs a hydrostatic sealing assembly for sealably and rotatably mounting the shaft within the housing. The sealing assembly includes a runner mounted around the shaft for rotation therewith and a seal ring mounted to the stationary housing. The runner and seal ring have facing surfaces between which the pressurized fluid creates a flowing low pressure fluid film which prevents contact between the facing surfaces so long as a predetermined minimum leakrate is maintained therebetween. The seal ring has first and second surfaces facing in a direction opposite to that of its facing surface and in sealingly isolated relationship from one another. The first surface communicates with the pressurized fluid at supply pressure. A flow control device provided in the seal ring is automatically operable in response to the supply pressure level to open communication of the pressurized fluid supply pressure with the seal ring second surface at pump operation and to open communication of the fluid film low pressure with the seal ring second surface at pump startup. A lifting force thus imposed on the seal ring facing surface by the pressurized fluid is effectively balanced by a seating force imposed on the seal ring first and second surfaces at both pump startup and operation so that leakrates are produced between the facing surfaces during both pump startup and operation which are above the predetermined minimum.

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Monroeville, PA, United States of America

Charles P Nyilas