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Cylindrical reservoirs promote cleanliness
Abstract
A self-cleaning reservoir that takes the form of a vertical cylinder with a conical bottom is presented. A smooth transition joint exists where the vertical side wall meets the conical bottom. The suction connection for filters is located in the lowermost part of the reservoir, at the apex of the inverted cone. The return flow inlet is tangential to the cylindrical wall. When the return flow enters the reservoir, the entire mass of oil tends to slowly rotate. In a cylindrical reservoir, the hydrostatic pressure presents no practical impact on the thickness of the side plate because the geometry of the cylinder distributes stress from the hydrostatic pressure evenly around the circumference of the reservoir.
The papers published in these proceedings are presented in the Third International Seminar on Maintenance, Condition Monitoring and Diagnostics, to be arranged in Oulu, Finland, in 29th – 30th September, 2010. Arranged by the University of Oulu and POHTO – The Institute for Management and Technological Training, the present seminar is supported by a variety of Finnish industrial enterprises.
Although overall technology and new material development has accelerated at an ever increasing pace since the Second World War, very little has happened in the traditional design for a circulating lube oil system. Certainly lubricating oils and filtration have greatly improved over this time, whereas reservoir designs have essentially remained the same as long as one can ever remember. With some old standards and rules of thumb", the idea of a reservoir to be just a rectangular tank for holding oil of a certain volume, based on total system flow capacity was considered the norm. On the other hand, the machines that these systems now lubricate have changed tremendously; e.g. the speed of the paper machines are higher, machines are wider and the automation level is quite different as it was 20 years ago. Very often increased machine speeds lead to higher air content in a circulating oil lubrication system. Furthermore, the closing of the mill water systems can often result in accelerated oil deterioration, especially where the ingress of water has not been quickly removed. In the late 90's, Finnish lubrication system manufacturer Safematic, now part of SKF Group, started a joint research project with Tampere University of Technology (TUT). The goal was to develop much more efficient oil circulating lubrication system, especially for the paper machine environment. Based on several laboratory and test runs a new concept was completed. This paper presents the theoretical background along with technical solutions on just how water removal has been achieved together with air releasing improvements in a modern lubrication oil reservoir. The rectangular and cylindrical reservoir shapes were modeled for calculation by CFD program called Fluent. The calculation results were verified by measurements in a full-scale laboratory test system. The results are presented and discussed. The other system improvements are presented shortly.
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