Pump Shaft Failure

Abstract

The drive shaft on a centrifugal pump fractured after five months of operation. The fracture occurred at a packing gland inside a sleeve against which the packing material sealed. The shaft and sleeve were of duplex stainless steel. In contrast to a previous conclusion that heating had caused property deterioration resulting in embrittlement and fracture, it was concluded that the shaft must have fractured (most probably by fatigue cracking originating at the change of section) and that heating had then taken place from friction between the rotating input shaft and the remaining part attached to the pump. High temperature was thus a result, not the cause, of the failure.