Westfalia Lub Oil Separator

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BlowIn
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Westfalia Lub Oil Separator

Post by BlowIn »

I have two westfalia separator I'll post exact model numbers later and I am wondering if any off you could help me with a curious piping situation.

They are operating just fine but the watt supplied to them strikes me as strange.

The operating water is cold filtered fresh water no problem there.

It's the filling/displacement water that gets me.

It's on the fresh hot water line.It's unfiltered except from where the domestic hot water gets topped up from the filtered hydrophore system.
Bit this doesn't seem to bother it in any way but it's the supply lay out that gets me.

The supply is arrives very conventionally from the main hot water circuit but then it continues after the separator to snake back off across my engine room for metres and metres of winding pipe to tee back into the main line less than 2.5 metres from where it started on a delivery line. One big loop on a delivery not from a delivery to a return.

Why?
Obviously the hot water is better to come into contact with the hot engine lube oil.

But why not just a termination off the line?

Any thoughts?
Is it something to do with the instant availability of full temp water?
As a termination at the step would cool slightly over time?
The sep cycle is 7200 secs long.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts and thanks for listening.
Vegman
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Re: Westfalia Lub Oil Separator

Post by Vegman »

Good Day ,
Are you saying the big loop is in parrallel to the delivery line.? If it is so and not going into a return line there would be no flow during the intercycle period so the hot water would tend to go cold anyway.
Its possible that it was meant to provide some sort of continuous flow as you say to keep the water hot but that it was installed wrongly at the ship yard.
Did you check your Westphalia manual . I remember the old alfa laval manuals used to give the recommended piping layout for the operating water lines etc.

I cant recall any of the LO seperators I worked on had hot water filling water, so it may be a recent innovation.
BlowIn
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Re: Westfalia Lub Oil Separator

Post by BlowIn »

Hi Vegman, thanks for the reply.

It's really weird but yes it's just a loop.
And thinking about it there is a wash down hose teed off with 2 foot of the sep supply and it does need to run for a bit to get full temp got water.

No mention of what water type required in the manual I have.

The westfalia's I have are old the ship itself in 1980's.

The modern alpha lavel's I have (two off) for fuel oil purification use filtered cold water for displacement, intermediate tank and operating water.

It's not the only odd piping though I could go on all day.

An old halon system was replaced mid '00's, all the old lines where left in place and just capped at source!
An old sea water fed F/W generator was removed and most of the old piping is still there!
Neither of the above will be there cone summer I can assure you!

Lack of staff and time I'm told.
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JK
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Re: Westfalia Lub Oil Separator

Post by JK »

It's like a snakes wedding!
LOLOL
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Big Pete
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Re: Westfalia Lub Oil Separator

Post by Big Pete »

Sounds like a shipyard mistake too me. I agree it was probably meant to be a hot water supply with a loop from the Hot water supply back to the return. Either there should have been some sort of restrictive orifice between the supply and return of the loop to the purifiers, to create a differential pressure, or it should have been led back to the return loop.
Often the people physically building ships don't understand how the system works so they take short cuts to save time and materials that are logical to them, but stop the system working in the way it was designed. Almost every ship has similar examples if you look hard enough.

BP
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D Winsor
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Re: Westfalia Lub Oil Separator

Post by D Winsor »

Sounds like there is as Big Pete suggested something wrong with the return system.

It certainly sounds like there should be:
some sort of thermostatically controlled circulating pump in the system which could have been removed or never installed
the system may not be vented properly,
the return line may be blocked or the check valve used to prevent the circulating water from flowing back into the feed system if fed from the domestic hot water system is either leaking, missing, installed backwards or again never installed.

It should also be noted that if water to the purifier is gravity supplied from an separate header tank a check valve would not required. If the water is supplied from a header tank I would check to see if the return line is properly piped into the header tank and not into the feed pipe to the purifier

I've come across similar issues on a domestic hot water return system in the past and many cases it was either an issue with the pump or the check valve.
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BlowIn
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Re: Westfalia Lub Oil Separator

Post by BlowIn »

Thanks for the replies guys.

At sea at moment so very little chance to give my results.

I'll post my findings in a few days.
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