Guidance for completing fluid properties on an API 610 datasheet

to ensure the most suitable pump selection technical bulletin

The current layout of the fluid properties (or liquid characteristics) information provided by customers on the
latest API 610 datasheet can lead to conflicting data being presented. This may result in Amarinth finding in harder
to select the most suitable pump to meet the real needs of the customer, or misinterpreting the need leading to
an overly expensive specification or an inefficient pump for the required duty. This document highlights some of
the issues and explains how the datasheet can be better completed enabling Amarinth to select an optimally
matched pump for the required duty.

API 610 datasheet

Moving from API 610 10th to 11th edition, the document layout of the liquid characteristics table was changed,
separating the fluid from the performance, and this has raised issues in how some customers are completing the
datasheet, see Figure 1.

API 610 10th edition API 610 11th edition

Figure 1 – Comparison of API 610 10th and 11th edition fluid properties tables

Although the narrative in API 610 11th edition offers some guidance on how to complete the new datasheet in API
610 11th edition, there are companies that don’t appear to be using this guidance. Furthermore, in API 610 11th
edition customers have more flexibility than previously in how they layout the information on the datasheet. In
some cases, customers fall back on how they may have completed it for API 610 10th edition, or in other cases
present the information in a non-uniform way, for example changing within the datasheet whether the minimum or
maximum is the first or second value for a parameter leading to confusion in some instances.

In addition, customers previously specifying positive displacement (PD) pumps may not fully understand how
centrifugal pumps work and so may not appreciate how fluid properties explicitly impact centrifugal pump
selection. More information about the difference in how PD and centrifugal pumps work can be found in the
technical bulletin: Considerations for a PD pump and a centrifugal pump to perform on the same duty.

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Understanding fluid properties

To understand why completing the API 610 11th edition datasheet correctly is so important, an understanding of
how fluid properties interact based on different operating conditions is required.

All fluids have a relative density (or specific gravity), viscosity and vapour pressure at a given temperature.

• Relative density (or specific gravity) is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a fluid to the density
of a given reference material, in this case water. A fluid with a relative density (or specific gravity) greater than
one has a higher density than water and less than one a lower density.
• Viscosity of a fluid is its resistance to flow. For example, water has a low viscosity (it is “thin” and flows easily)
whereas syrup has a high viscosity (it is “thick” and flows more slowly).
• Vapour pressure is the pressure exerted by the vapour of a fluid due to its evaporation in a closed system.

The relative density (or specific gravity), viscosity and vapour pressure of a fluid vary according the temperature of
the fluid. For example, at a low temperature a fluid will usually have a higher relative density (or specific gravity),
higher viscosity and lower vapour pressure whereas at an elevated temperature the fluid will have a lower relative
density (or specific gravity), lower viscosity and higher vapour pressure.

When a pump is specified for an oil and gas duty, the temperature of the pumped fluid for the process is not
always known accurately. In addition, during start-up and shutdown or even at different times of the year, the
temperature of the fluid can change. As such, there are three key values for the temperature of the pumped fluid:

• Minimum – the lowest temperature of the fluid the pump must be able to operate at.
• Maximum – the highest temperature of the fluid the pump must be able to operate at.
• Normal (or Rated) – the usual temperature of the fluid the pump is normally expected to operate at.

The impact of fluid properties on centrifugal pump design

Since the relative density (or specific gravity) of a fluid decreases as temperature increases then a bigger pump is
required to maintain the same differential head. However, as the temperature of the fluid increases the viscosity
will decrease, requiring a smaller pump to deliver the same differential head. In addition, as the temperature of
the fluid increases its vapour pressure will also increase which then reduces the net positive suction head available.

Furthermore, the power requirements for the pump depend on the viscosity of the fluid. A high viscosity fluid
requires more power to pump at a specified head and flow than a low viscosity fluid, and as the fluid viscosity is
dependent on temperature then the power required from the pump to deliver the duty can also be dictated by the
temperature of the pumped fluid.

Therefore, knowing the temperature of the pumped fluid is crucial in selecting a pump that can deliver the
specified differential head and flow at the minimum and maximum conditions, and importantly for selecting a pump
which can deliver that head and flow with optimum efficiency, so lowest running cost, at a normal (rated)
temperature and condition.

However, in many cases the customer provides Amarinth with several required values, such as flow and head
along with other maximum and minimum operating values, without reference to a normal (rated) condition. To
help understand the impact that changes in fluid properties have on the pump selection, Figure 2 has a real-world
example of the fluid properties for a typical pumped fluid in the oil and gas industry as they were provided to
Amarinth.

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 Flow (m3/h) 5
Head (m) 29
Suction pressure (bar(g)) 0.85
Atmospheric pressure (bar(a)) 1.0
Minimum operating values Maximum operating values
Vapour pressure (bar(a)) 0.4 1.0
Relative density (SG) 0.82 1.02
Viscosity (mPa s) 2.0 15.0

Figure 2 – Real-world fluid properties and operating conditions

Calculating NPSH(A) and Power Requirements

To understand how the pump selection changes the NPSH(A) and the absorbed (or hydraulic) power (the power
required of the motor to pump the fluid) must be calculated using the minimum and maximum values in Figure 1.
The discharge pressure must also be calculated for each of the values in order to ensure the pipe pressure limits
will not be exceeded.

Example 1 - Calculation of NPSH(A)

The formula to calculate NPSH(A) for a pump is as follows:

NPSH(A) = (Atmospheric pressure + Suction pressure – Vapour pressure) x (10.197 / SG)

On the assumption that the vapour pressure of the pumped fluid is at the minimum when the relative density (or
specific gravity) of the pumped fluid is at a minimum this gives two possible values for NPSH(A):

1. (1 + 0.85 – 0.4) x (10.197 / 0.82) = 18.0 m

2. (1 + 0.85 – 1.0) x (10.197 / 1.02) = 8.5 m

Without knowing the normal (rated) condition of the vapour pressure or relative density (or specific gravity),
which would both be dictated by the normal (rated) temperature of the pumped fluid, it can be seen that the
selection of a pump required to handle these two values of NPSH(A) would be quite different. However, as the
same pump must be able to deliver both calculated NPSH(A) then a pump sized primarily for a NPSH(A) of 8.5m
could be oversized, operate less efficiently than a smaller pump and be more expensive to buy than a smaller pump
operating with a NPSH(A) of 18m.

Without knowing the normal (rated) temperature of the pumped fluid it is therefore impossible to
select the best and most efficient pump required for the majority of the time thereby potentially
leading to a more expensive pump than may be required or a pump that may be running for long
periods of time outside its best efficiency which may lead to a shorter life and higher maintenance.

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Example 2 - Calculation of absorbed (hydraulic) power

The formula to calculate the absorbed power for a pump is as follows:

Power = (Flow x Head x SG) / (367.12 x Efficiency)

The efficiency of a given pump is however dependent on the viscosity of the pumped fluid and so using the
minimum and maximum values in Figure 1 there are four possible values for the absorbed power as both specific
gravity and viscosity are varied:

For the minimum viscosity of 2.0 the pump efficiency is 38.77 and so the power absorbed for each SG are:

1. (5 x 29 x 0.82) / (367.12 x 0.3877) = 0.83 kW

2. (5 x 29 x 1.02) / (367.12 x 0.3877) = 1.04 kW

For the maximum viscosity of 15.0 the pump efficiency reduces to 31.11 and so the power absorbed for each SG
are:

3. (5 x 29 x 0.82) / (367.12 x 0.3111) = 1.04 kW

4. (5 x 29 x 1.02) / (367.12 x 0.3111) = 1.30 kW

Again, without knowing the normal (rated) condition for the pump it can be seen from the above
calculations that the pump could be under or oversized and therefore not running at best efficiency.
In the example above, the cost difference between the most powerful and least powerful pump
would be hundreds of pounds but in the case of larger pumps then the cost difference would be
many thousands of pounds and in addition a more powerful pump would incur additional
infrastructure costs.

Benefits of a considered approach

Pumps are sold on their published rated specification and so specifying normal or rated values (not just minimum
and maximum), particularly the normal (rated) temperature, will ensure Amarinth is able to:

• Select the best and most cost-effective pump for the duty. Changing up a pump size can have a significant
impact on cost, for example a larger pump could cost 20% more, plus any additional cost of the civil
engineering works to site the larger pump.
• Reduce lead time through having fewer queries, variations and signoffs as all parties are clear from the outset
about the way in which the pump performance has been calculated.

Recommendation

To assist Amarinth in selecting the best, most cost-effective API 610 pump for the required duty, it is therefore
recommended that the normal (rated) values for the fluid properties are provided by the customer on the
datasheet in addition to the maximum and minimum conditions. We therefore suggest amending the datasheet
submitted to Amarinth as per Figure 3.

This suggested change also brings the submitted datasheet for fluid properties into line with API 685 2nd edition,
the sealless magnetic drive end suction centrifugal pump equivalent to API 610 for petroleum, heavy-duty chemical,
and gas industry services, which was released in February 2011, after publication of API 610 11th edition.

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 Figure 3 – Suggested layout of fluid properties tables for API 610 11th edition with rated values for liquid
characteristics

If you require any further advice or assistance on completing the fluid properties table then please call us on
+44 (0)1394 462 120 or email us at enquiries@amarinth.com.

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