Modification of suction kit

Abstract

This thesis is about the modification of an ROV mounted Suction Kit; a reversible centrifugal pump designed and manufactured by Oceaneering AS. The Kit mainly contains a centrifugal pump driven by a hydraulic pump motor and a flow regulator enabling the function of a reversible flow. Oceaneering AS gave me the challenge to improve the Suction Kit to meet requirements and specifications put forward by a client. In addition Oceaneering also presented some internal requirements, where the most important one being to keep the dimensions of the Suction Kit as it is. There are several requirements, but in this thesis it will be focused on increasing the flow rate from 1300 liter/min to 2000 liter/min. This is an increase of 700 liters or 53%. In regard to pumps, an increase in flow rate of over 50% while keeping dimensions unchanged, is a challenge. The modifications performed in this thesis are based on basic pump theory and test results. Some of the changes include modifying the impeller, improving the flow path and removal of the flow regulator. The maximum flow achieved was 1823 liters/minute.