A review of major centrifugal pump failure modes with application to the water supply and sewerage industries

Centrifugal pumps are one of the world?s most widely used type of pump, having an extensiverange of applications, from food processing to water or sewage transportation. Problems that arisewithin these machines decrease the flow of the fluid within the pipelines, thus interrupting theproduction and transport of the fluid to its destination within the process. This may lead to other partsof the process system slowing down or behaving undesirably. As a result, it is imperative that thesepumps be correctly monitored, diagnosed, maintained or replaced prior to the pump failing catastrophically to reduce downtime, material cost, and labour costs. This paper reviews the major faultmodes that are found in centrifugal pumps, especially those in the water and sewage industry. Attentionis given to the nature of the faults, symptoms shown within the pump that could be utilised for specificfault detection and diagnosis, and any mechanical corrective procedures that exist to help alleviate theproblem. In addition, this paper contains a comparison and critique of previously published work thathas attempted to diagnose the fault modes of centrifugal pumps.