KnightHawk offers testing services on industrial equipment. KHE can design and execute testing for all types of equipment as well as materials and processes, both destructive and nondestructive.
Our client had developed a new piece of equipment and wanted to test its ability to withstand the designed loads under operating conditions (while rotating on a horizontal axis). Strain Gauges were mounted on critical internal structural components. Representative loads were applied to the rotating components and the system was rotated while measurements were taken. The structural design was found to be adequate
A pressure vessel was designed to operate at 12,000 psi. A hydrostatic test on a prototype was to be performed, pressurizing the vessel to 150% of design pressure. The vessel was instrumented with strain gauges and pressurized to 18,000 psi. The measured strain was within tolerance of the code and no defects were detected.
KHE performed a Section VIII, Division 2 code assessment on a set of sub sea flanges based on design conditions for worst case as 12,000 psi operating pressure and 700,000 lbs. bending moment. Even though it passed code requirements, the client required that testing on a prototype set was to be performed. The flanges were welded to 10 foot sections of the pipe to be used in the application and bolted together as if being installed in the final application. A test stand was set up to apply hydrostatic pressure and bending moment to 150% of operating conditions and held for 2 hours without leaks. The test units were instrumented with strain gages as well as temperature and pressure gauges.
KHE suspected that destructive pressure pulsations may be occurring within the suction and or discharge chamber of a positive displacement compressor under limited process conditions, but were causing the compressor rotor to be damaged repetitively. KHE mounted dynamic pressure transducers in the suction and discharge housing of the compressor and accelerometers on the bearing housings of the compressor rotor. The compressor was started up and put into production. Data was collected for several days and through several process changeovers. The data revealed that when the molecular weight of the process gas was shifted between 11 and 28, the acoustic conditions tuned in at a mole weight of approximately 18. The pressure pulsations that occur naturally in the system were amplified to catastrophic levels and wrecking the rotor. The process was modified to shutdown the compressor during process changeovers requiring mole weight swings crossing the critical weight.
KHE has executed many projects; testing equipment, materials, and processes. Let us test your equipment to determine its structural integrity, productivity, efficiency or stability.
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