POWER May 2023 - 25

MARNIE SURFACEBLOW
lem-I think, " Willie frowned deeply.
It was clear that Willie was both
hopeful the duo could solve his next
problem and afraid of looking stupid, so
Maya said with encouragement, " Tell us
the other problem, Mr. McCoy. Perhaps
it is destined we can solve it before the
aeroplane lands. "
" Sure, why not? By the way, you
solved that first problem mighty quick,
so I'm guessing that it won't cost us
too much, right? " asked Willie, with a
cautious hope that was shattered when
Marnie simply smiled in response.
" Anyhow ... not only did we have electric
BFP problems, but the steam BFP
ain't right either! We did a major overhaul
during the outage because it sits idle
most times-remember, we only bring it
online at 120 MW. We worried about corrosion
but everything looked good. After
the outage everything seemed good,
then our remote monitoring folks found a
trend we hadn't noticed. The steam BFP
lube oil tank level was rising! We didn't
know what to think. We checked and it
wasn't instrument error or foamed oil, "
Willie explained.
" And you tested the oil, yes? " inquired
Maya.
Willie nodded eagerly. " Sure did, and
it turned out it was water-about 200
gallons mixed with 500 gallons of oil!
We figured steam was leaking into the
oil, so we replaced every seal and gasket,
polished every bearing surface, used
all original equipment manufacturer parts
and the recommended oil. The pump
should be better than new, but after running
for just five days, we already saw
the level rising again. "
While Maya sat and thought, Marnie
leaned across to look at Willie's laptop.
" My turn to solve the problem. I can't let
you have all the fun, Maya, " said Marnie.
" Willie, are the steam seal drains instrumented
to show you the volume of flow
through the drains? " she asked.
Willie tapped away and clicked through
the DCS historical data stored on his
laptop. Maya thought harder, brow furrowed,
while Marnie relaxed with coffee
number 11, and was pleasantly shocked
as the flight attendant left the pot, mumbling
under her breath, " Don't ring the
call button again. "
" Mrs. Surfaceblow? We don't have
reliable flow readings on the drains,
but we do have thermocouples. Looks
like they go off the temperature and extrapolate
or make a guess on the flowrate
based on the temperature of the
drains, since there ain't supposed to be
May 2023 | POWER
2. Maya and Marnie rehash their encounter with Willie as they walk to their connecting flight.
Source: POWER
that much coming out of them, " Willie
said, while displaying the trends. " And
here it looks like we really tightened
things up, since after the outage the
drain temperatures are almost ambient.
That's good, right? "
Marnie sighed, " No, my friend, not in
this case. I've seen this before, and my
guess is one of two things happened,
either the drains weren't lined up right
when they re-assembled the pump after
the complete teardown, or maybe during
the outage they blocked the drain
lines and forgot about it. Sometimes
someone stuffs a rag or rubber plug in
the lines. Since the sealing steam can't
escape via the drains, it takes the path
of least resistance-it's pushing past the
seals and into the oil system, and that's
where your water is coming from. "
Willie sat and stared at the screen silently
for a minute, while Maya added,
" The repair for this is easier than for the
electric BFPs, but still requires work. You
must clear or align the drain lines, and
then replace the seals within the BFP
as they will have been damaged. " Willie
nodded as he quickly typed everything
into the e-mail to his maintenance manager.
Just as the chime sounded over the
intercom announcing it was time to discontinue
the use of large electronic devices,
Willie clicked the " send " icon with
a triumphant flourish.
As they prepared for landing-including
the flight attendant removing
Marnie's
precious
borrowed
coffee
pot-Willie looked over at the duo and
shook his head in amusement. " I canwww.powermag.com
not
believe how lucky I was to be sitting
right next to the famous Marnie Surfaceblow
and Maya Sharma. You ladies really
saved the day, and all without even being
at the plant site! And don't you worry, we
will be paying whatever you bill us for all
this help! " he said.
Remember to Gather Your Belongings
Half an hour later, having said farewell to
Willie and walking to their connection (Figure
2), Maya asked her boss, " And how
much shall we be invoicing Mr. McCoy for
our service? "
Marnie shook her head. " Well, we
have to bill something, after all we did
provide value. And one has to maintain
an eminence front, so to speak. Wouldn't
you agree, 'famous Maya Sharma?' "
Then she laughed as Maya looked down
and blushed from the moniker. " Honestly,
my faithful assistant, there are much
worse ways to spend time on an airplane
than solving engineering problems and
making the world a better place. In fact,
let's just call this a free donation for the
greater good of humanity! "
After a couple more minutes walking
toward their connecting gate without
speaking, Maya suddenly stopped and
asked, " You left the contract on the aeroplane
by mistake, didn't you, ma'am? "
It was Marnie's turn to blush, and Maya's
turn to laugh, as Marnie said, " Such
is life. At least I still have my Montblanc
pen-oh ... rats. " ■
-Una Nowling, PE is an adjunct professor
of mechanical engineering at the
University of Missouri-Kansas City.
25

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POWER May 2023

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