Statistical Process Monitoring and Cavitating Pumps

Cavitation is a common source of pump failure.  Vibration monitoring is the general technology used to capture this condition.  However, it does not always work because the impact of cavitation cannot be discerned within background noise.  Pressure transmitters that utilitze Statistical Process Monitoring (SPM) is a great way to monitor this, especially on “bad actors”.

When a car is driving down the highway, the cruise control can be set to 65 MPH.  The driver only sees the speed, while the tires feel every bump.  If the car were to leave the pavement and go onto a gravel road, the driver would still see the speed, but the tires would report a problem.  SPM works much the same way.

Within a process environment, the pressure pulse, as sensed by the transmitter, takes on a repeatable profile.  If the mean and standard deviation of this profile change, it could indicate a problem.  That is exactly how SPM monitors your process and alerts you to potential problems, especially cavitating pumps.