Mechanical Seal Condition Monitoring
From Imrtwiki
The submersible pumps used by Sydney and Hunter Water have on-line monitoring of the seal condition. These pumps have an oil barrier fluid between a double mechanical seal. If water gets past the primary seal and mixes with the oil them a moisture sensor alarm is activated. Sydney Water attendee suggested there are now models available that can trend the moisture level in the oil, which avoids false alarms due to very slow moisture ingress over time. The Figure below shows an example of the seal arrangement with the oil chamber in yellow. This type of monitoring would be applicable for other pumping applications where being able to predict seal failure would minimise operational or environmental risk.
