Pumps – Motor driven – Pump within rotary working member
Patent
1987-01-20
1989-05-16
Croyle, Carlton R.
Pumps
Motor driven
Pump within rotary working member
417430, 415143, 4151821, 415 62, F04B 1502
Patent
active
048305847
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a pump or compressor unit.
In the extraction of oil from offshore sites, problems arise from the presence in the extracted oil of substantial quantities of gas. The extracted oil releases gas as a consequence of the decrease of pressure it experiences on extraction, so what is obtained is a plural or multiphase fluid flow comprising a very non-homogenous mixture of oil and gas. Sometimes substantial slugs of oil without a substantial admixture of gas are encountered and the impact of these can be sufficient to cause damage to equipment. It is consequently desirable to effect separation of the gas from the oil as early as possible in the extraction process and thus the mixture may be first supplied to an offshore platform at which this separation is effected, the oil and gas being supplied from the platform, for example to shore, through separate pipelines.
The presence of gas admixed with the extracted oil thus causes serious complications in the handling of the extracted material and the invention is concerned with the provision of a pump/compressor unit which can be employed to alleviate them.
The invention accordingly provides a pump/compressor unit including a multi-stage axial flow compressor device, preferably contra-rotating. A rotating element of the device can carry one or more upstream vanes, co-operable with stationary vanes. A mixer device can be positioned at the inlet end of the pump/compressor unit and this device can be an active mixer device which can take its drive from the compressor device. The mixer device can be specially profiled, for example, as an inducer, to have appropriate capability for handling gas and/or liquid slugs. The effect of the compressor device and/or the mixer in homogenising a mixed phase fluid is such that the unit can include a centrifugal pump device downstream of the compressor device. The centrifugal impeller may also take its drive from the compressor device.
The invention thus also provides a pump/compressor unit for a liquid/gas mixture, the unit having an upstream mixer device and downstream compressor means. The compressor means can comprise successive stages which can be located so as to operate within a progressively more restricted cross-sectional flow area, as by mounting one set of blades on a support between blades mounted within a preferably contra-rotating sleeve or tube the support being frusto-conical and/or the sleeve being internally frusto-conical. The invention thus provides for increasing the pressure of the fluid by small predetermined increments, so that a homogenising effect is obtained, in contrast to the tendency of conventional centrifugal pumps to promote separation of the components of a gas/liquid mixture.
The invention can conveniently be embodied in the form of adjacent axially aligned independently rotatable sleeves for reception in a pipe-line, the upstream sleeve containing one or more mixing elements at the upstream end and at least one first compressor stage at its downstream end which is drivingly connected with second compressor vanes located within the downstream sleeve for co-operation with third compressor vanes carried therein.
The sleeves are arranged to be rotated about their common axis, conveniently by separate electric motors. The motors may be received between each sleeve and an outer casing in which the sleeves are journalled, but the separate motors can be located within the sleeves if preferred, inside central hubs carrying the vanes and/or mixing elements. Alternatively, the motors can be spaced axially from the sleeves and connected to them by aligned shafts, or by a hollow shaft and a second shaft within it.
The electric motors can be a.c. or d.c. and can be arranged to rotate at the same speed or at different speeds, which can be selectively variable if desired. Such arrangements allow contra-rotation to be effected without the use of gears but, if preferred, a single motor can be employed, the contra-rotation and any desired speed differential being obtained by suitable gearing.
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Croyle Carlton R.
Szczecina Jr. Eugene L.
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