Study on Condition Monitoring in Petrochemical Equipment Using Oil Analysis Technology

In this study, condition monitoring and fault diagnosis have been used to monitor the boiler's ultra high pressure feedwater pumps of a petrochemical corporation by the modem oil analysis technique. During the duration of around one-year's monitoring, several kinds of monitoring means, such as physical & chemical property analysis, emission spectroscopic analysis and ferrographic analysis, have been adopted to detect the difference of water content and element concentration. The analysis results have indicated that mechanical seal leakage appeared in two pump bodies. However, variation of both element concentration of Fe and Sn in the spectroscopic analysis and wear particle concentration in the ferrographic analysis has shown that it didn't change obviously, but fluctuated during the period of monitoring because of oil change. The further analysis has indicated that the friction pairs were still in the steady wear stage by the wear debris analysis. The research also reveals that using the combined oil analysis techniques to monitor the operating equipment condition is greatly significant to improve the efficiency of equipments and avoid contingency.