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Mixed Pressure Control System

for a Centrifugal Pump

Levon Gevorkov, Valery Vodovozov


Department of Electrical Power Engineering and Mechatronics
Tallinn University of Technology
Tallinn, Estonia
levon.gevorkov@ttu.ee

AbstractA novel pressure control system based on a applications. During the operation of the centrifugal pump
centrifugal pump Simulink model is proposed aiming to reduce system, the value of pressure can change considerably due to
energy consumption during pump operation. The system time-varying demands on the delivery side. The safety of the
developed provides the possibility of power reduction during pumping systems and pipelines in a water distribution system
pressure maintenance with the help of mixed pressure control greatly depends on the possibility to control the level of
strategy. To evaluate the system, a series of tests have been pressure within the acceptable limits [7]. Therefore, it is
conducted that proved that the designed system is more necessary to vary the operation point of the centrifugal pump to
beneficial from power consumption point of view than traditional control the output pressure despite the disturbances caused by
pressure control methods. The system can be useful for pressure
the operation process. At the same time, the growing interest in
control optimization of centrifugal pumps.
energy savings and greenhouse gas reduction requires
Keywordspumps, pressure control, centrifugal pump, Matlab, development of novel control strategies for pressure
variable speed drive, power measurement, modelling, simulation maintenance. Every conventional pumping system incorporates
variable speed pumps, consisting of centrifugal pumps,
variable frequency converters, and induction motors. In order
I. INTRODUCTION to reduce energy consumption, special attention should be
Centrifugal pumps are widely used in different industrial payed to the input power of the system in general [8].
applications. They are essential parts in applications that
require transferring fluids at a variable flow rate and variable There are several solutions how to control output pressure
pressure [1], [2]. Usually, centrifugal pumps are among the of the centrifugal pump system. In [9], the author proposes the
main consumers of electricity within the distribution networks pressure control in the calculated working point based on the
driven by induction motors, which operate at either fixed or electro-hydraulic model. Other authors discuss the possibility
variable speed [3], [4]. Energy consumption of a centrifugal to apply the fuzzy control to cater system nonlinearities at the
pump system greatly depends on an electric drive. For instance, same time providing robust regulation under the large
at a constant speed operation, it is necessary to use throttle disturbances [10], and exanimating the operation of water
valves to control either the flow or pressure. The use of distribution systems to provide the ways of increasing the
variable speed drives (VSDs) gives the possibility to control efficiency of the system [11]. These approaches do not concern
both the flow and pressure, and potentially reduces power about the possibilities to reduce power losses caused by VSDs.
losses [5]. Frequency converters that are parts of VSDs allow They also do not focus on centrifugal pump input power
implementing soft start and shutdown of the pumps. Unlike estimation during the pressure regulation. To regulate pressure,
throttling method, the advantage of VSDs is that they do not mainly the speed control is taken into account in these papers.
influence efficiency of the system much. Another important This paper describes the developed pressure control method
aspect is that lifecycle costs of such systems also depend on based on the DriveSize/Simulink model of the centrifugal
energy consumption [6]. pump system. The model consists of two parts. The first one
Nevertheless, even in the case of using VSDs, the pumping represents the VSD and the second one a centrifugal pump
systems generally consume much more energy than the itself. The data from the model is used to calculate the energy
optimum level. Significant energy savings can be obtained by consumption of the whole system. With the help of proposed
applying both methods throttling and speed control at the algorithm, which is based on the data from a model, it is
same time. Due to the fact, that the energy costs are increasing, possible to choose the operational point of the centrifugal
the possibility to reduce energy consumption of pump drives is pump system optimal from an energy point of view. To achieve
becoming more important. the optimal working point both throttling and speed pressure
control methods are applied simultaneously. It can help to
Pressure is one of the main process variables in pumping improve potential of energy saving in the pumping system.
application. It is rather important to maintain the desired level
of pressure to meet the requirements of various industrial The paper is organized as follows. In the following
Section II, the conventional pressure control methods are

978-1-5090-4962-2/17/$31.00 2017 IEEE 364


described. Then, in Section III, the topology of the developed corresponding to the points of the rated performance curve, and
model and its subsystems with proposed algorithm and i are the points of the performance curve for the i-th rotational
designed user interface are explained. Next, in Section IV, the speed.
experimental results are presented and conclusions drawn.
To adjust pressure of the centrifugal pump, two main
approaches may be used [14]:
II. COMPARISON OF PRESSURE CONTROL METHODS
throttling method, by using a regulation valve,
The layout of the centrifugal pumping system with a single
the speed control method, by using the VSD.
stage is given in Fig. 1 [12].
Fig. 2 illustrates the throttling pressure control method,
which is generally used with fixed speed drives.
Grid

PLC p Pump curve

Operating point Natural


Induction motor
operating point

~~ M
Throttled
Power converter Pressure system
sensor
Unthrottled
Centrifugal system
Valve
pump
z1 Q

Fig. 2. A throttling method for the pressure control of a centrifugal pump.


Pipeline z
During the application of the throttling method, the
pressure of liquid is changed with the help of the system curve
Fluid tank position relocation. At throttling, the working point of the
z0 centrifugal pump slides along the performance curve to the left
or right side depending on the position of the throttle valve.
Fig. 1. Schematic of a single-stage centrifugal pump system. Therefore, throttling affects the working point position with
the help of process characteristics. Nevertheless, this pressure
The centrifugal pump transfers liquid from the fluid tank to
control method has some drawbacks because throttling wastes
a level located at some height above the reference plane or
pumps it directly to the pipeline network connected to the a significant amount of energy and reduces the efficiency.
centrifugal pump outlet. To produce enough pressure and flow
in the network, the pump is generally driven by a VSD On the other hand, during application of the speed
consisting of the frequency converter and an induction motor. control, Fig. 3, the working point slides vertically along the
The valve connected to the outlet of the pump emulates system curve when the position of the performance curve
disturbances of the liquid consumption in the pipeline and changes due to the speed regulation.
allows simulating various operation characteristics. A pressure
sensor connected to the pipeline transfers information to the p Pump curves
programmable logic controller (PLC) controlling the VSD
according to predefined algorithms. Operating point Natural
operating point
The headflow (H-Q) characteristics of the centrifugal
pump and process characteristics are nonlinear. With the help
of so-called performance curve, published by the manufacturer,
which generally correspond only to the rated rotational speed
of the centrifugal pump, and affinity laws (1) it is possible to Unthrottled
calculate values of flow Q, power - P and energy head H system
for different rotational speeds [13]:
2 3
Qis ni , H is ni , Pis ni , (1)
Q

Qrs nr H rs nr Prs nr
Fig. 3. The speed control method for the pressure regulation of a centrifugal
where an index s links the coordinates of the certain working pump.
points located on the s-th system curve, index r is

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The advantage of this control method is that this approach Fig. 4 illustrates the topology of the designed model for
can lead to the considerable energy saving and at the same input power estimation. The model consists of several
time can prolong the operational period of a centrifugal pump. subsystems. The elements indicated as boxes contain various
parts of the centrifugal pump system:
Despite the fact that variable speed pumps are capable to
maintain the relatively high efficiency by scaling the DS DriveSize,
performance curve, they are attached to the same system POM parameters of motor,
curve. This operation mode cannot be much beneficial from
the energy point of view. The objective of the research work is POFC parameters of frequency converter,
to check the possibility of the pressure maintenance PCM pressure control module,
optimization with the help of a combination of both methods.
BPC brake power calculator,
III. MIXED PRESSURE CONTROL SYSTEM LC power losses calculator,

To study the input power of a single-stage centrifugal IPC input power calculator.
pump, it is necessary to know the power on the shaft and power
losses of the VSD. Equation (2) gives the brake power of a
centrifugal pump [15]:
nT , DS
Ppum T (2)
30
POM
where
Ppum brake power on the pump shaft, W
rotational speed of the pump, rad/s POFC
n rotational speed of the pump, rpm
T pump torque, Nm
The full input power of a centrifugal pump system is
given by the equation (3):
Pin = Ppum + Ploss . (3)
Simulink Model
To estimate the input power, the simulation of a
centrifugal pump system is proposed. The model is based on PCM
both the pump and the VSD models. To develop the
appropriate model of a pumping system, two different
simulation environments are used. The pump model contains
various sensors, pipeline, throttle valve, single-stage centrifugal
BPC
pump, and fluid reservoir. All of these parts were modelled in
the Simulink environment. The model of a VSD contains the
characteristics of the induction motor and the frequency
LC
converter. It was developed with the help of ABB DriveSize
simulation environment [16]. Parameters of the VSD are
shown in Table I [17].

TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF ELECTRIC DRIVE


IPC
M3AA 80C 2 ACS850-04-03A0-5
Catalogue data Catalogue data
DS
3GAA 081
Product code 313-
ASE(ES) Fig. 4. Model for power calculation.
Voltage [V] 400 Voltage [V] 400
Here, POM and POFC blocks are employed to simulate
Frequency [Hz] 50 Nominal power [kW] 1.1
the VSD with the help of the DriveSize simulation
Power [kW] 1.1 Nominal current [A] 2.8 environment based on the speed and torque parameters of the
centrifugal pump. Block PCM is a part of Matlab/Simulink
Poles [number] 2 Imax [A] 4.4
model, which allows the pressure regulation either by
Speed [rpm] 2875 Ihd [A] 2.5 throttling or by the speed control. It consists of ball-throttle

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valve and ideal angular velocity source, both are from the Starting from 0 rpm, it should reach at least the minimum
Simulink libraries. value of 500 rpm, and the valve should be open at least for
60. If the condition is not true, the program starts recursion
The subsystem BPC shown in Fig. 5 is designed to and increases the speed value and valve angle until they reach
calculate the power on the pump shaft. the minimum levels.

a b c d e f

g h i

Fig. 6. User interface.


Fig. 5. Structure of BPC subsytem.
Then the program proceeds to the next step. On this step,
It consists of an ideal torque sensor connected to the the algorithm begins estimation of the input power of a
centrifugal pump shaft. After estimation of torque on the shaft centrifugal pump system for a combined pressure control
using (2), it becomes possible to calculate the brake power. based on the value of a reference pressure signal. To conduct
these calculations, the DriveSize/Simulink model is used.
Next, the calculated data are sent from the DriveSize
After calculations completion, the program chooses the
model to the LC in the form of the lookup table. This block
optimal working point location and calculates the appropriate
also receives such parameters as torque on the shaft and the
valve angle and the rotational speed of a pump corresponding
rotational speed as an input. After that, it is possible to
to this working point. The values of the throttle valve angle
estimate VSD power losses by taking into accoutnt the input
and the rotational speed proceed to another part of the
parameters and data from DriveSize stored in the form of a
program.
lookup table. The next step is the IPC subsystem, which
calculates the input power based on (3). On the next step, the value of the actual speed nact is
compared with the reference value nref and then the PID
The user interface of the developed program is shown in
module controls an output speed of the centrifugal pump
Fig. 6. It helps control the output pressure of a centrifugal
Ebara CDX [19] using the frequency converter ACQ810 from
pump. The interface has been designed in CoDeSys [18].
ABB company, which receives the rotational speed value n of
Here,
the pump. With the help of the PID regulation system based
a Switch on/Switch off toggle button, on the speed control, the pump speed n is corrected so that the
pump performance curve is scaled to the position, which was
b Arrow pressure indicator, previously calculated by the model. The same process takes
c Pressure reference bar, place for the throttle valve angle. The value of the current
valve angle act is compared with the reference value ref and
d Arrow pump speed indicator,
then the PID module controls an output value of the angle.
e Emergency indicator ( p<pmin || p>pmax), This helps locate both the pump performance scaled curve and
the system curve exactly to the calculated position, which
f Digital indicators of pressure reference value, reference
corresponds to the estimated working point.
speed, and valve angle. On the last step, the program checks the pressure value
from the pressure sensor MBS3000 and then pact is compared
The algorithm of the developed pressure control is shown
with minimum and maximum levels obtained during the
in Fig. 7. At the beginning, the program will initialize experimental bordering (0.5 3.5 bar). If a real pressure value
variables and check connection between the PLC, frequency exceeds the limits, the program stops the centrifugal pump. In
converter and computer. Once the initial data are uploaded the case when the real pressure value is within these borders,
from the lookup table, the program starts checking the the algorithm is not interrupted.
rotational speed of a pump. The current speed is a parameter,
which the program receives from the frequency converter
connected to the PLC via the profibus adapter FPBA-01.

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Initialization
that, with the growth of the hydraulic power of a centrifugal
pump, the input power is also increasing respectively.

p, bar
Program run

No Speed checking Yes Actual speed 1.9


Speed increasing nmin > 500 rpm
min > 60
Actual angle

1.7
Calculating the
appropriate valve angle Pressure
and pump speed reference pref
1.5
ref reference angle
nref reference speed
nact
nref 2 4 6 8
+ n
PID Q, m3/h
n
Centrifugal Fig. 8. The power distribution during the mixed pressure control (green area
ACQ810
pump corresponds to the optimal working point zone).

Table II represents comparative data of the simulation and


act
experimentation for the mixed pressure control at 1.8 bar.
ref
+
PID TABLE II. COMPARISON OF ESTIMATED POWER FOR PRESSURE 1.8 BAR
Mixed
Input Power, W
Valve drive Throttle control
Hydraulic Power, W
Flow (m3/h) Simulation Experimentation
Stop centrifugal
pump pact Pressure 7 1100 1060 353
feedback 6 1000 970 302
Emergency Continue 5 870 830 252
Yes No
situation pump 3.5 700 670 176
p<pmin||p>pmax operation 2.5 530 510 126

Fig. 7. The mixed pressure control algorithm for a centrifugal pump. Obtained data show the high accuracy of the model and
possibility to save energy during the pressure control by
IV. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION applying the mixed pressure control strategy. Fig. 9 shows data
for the one-hour period.
To validate the proposed pressure control method, the
simulation and experimental study have been conducted. Data Energy of pumping for pressure 1.8 bar
from both the Simulink model and the experimental test bench
described in [20] were examined. 2
Energy [kWh]

1.5
Fig. 8 illustrates the distribution of the input power
1
according to outlet pressure and position of the current working
point. Output pressure was examined in the range from 1.5 bar 0.5
to 2.0 bar. Areas coloured in green are the areas with the 0
optimal energy consumption for a given value of pressure. To 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
select the area, a criterion of the minimal acceptable flow was Time [minutes]
taken into account. Areas with red colour are close to the
region where the pump usually operates. When the working pump operating in red zone
point is located in a red area, the highest energy consumption pump operating in green zone
takes place. On the contrary, when the working point is located
on the left side, in the grey area, the energy consumption is Fig. 9. Energy consumption during one-hour period for a centrifugal pump at
lowest but the flow is not enough to meet the minimal 1.8 bar pressure.
requirements. The examination of the obtained results shows

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
[18] CODESYS in Embedded Automation Complete IEC 61131-3 IDE for
This research was supported by the Estonian Centre of industrial embedded applications, Available at:
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funded by the European Regional Development Fund. online.com/CDX.pdf.
[20] L. Gevorkov, I. Bakman, and V. Vodovozov, Hardware-in-the-loop
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