Rethinking Barometric Legs

By:
D K Singhal
[email protected]
Barometric Legs
 Barometric legs are long neglected
specially for paper machine wet end
vacuum systems.
 There are many mills using these since
long, still, improper designs have led to
poor functioning, and hence, operational
problems.

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What Papermakers Want?
 Essentially, a papermaker wishes to get
maximum web dryness with minimum
vacuum, least drag load and good control
over the entire operation.
 Yet, paper machine operators adjusting
vacuum levels, valves to reach the desired
level; are common for many machines.

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Wire Vacuum Control
 Wire vacuum control is a complex,
difficult and annoying process.
 When you alter gauge vacuum level in a
suction box, this results in changes in
outlet web dryness and hence airflow in
all subsequent suction boxes.

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Airflow
 The sum of airflow through the individual
suction boxes is what the vacuum pump is
supposed to handle.
 But, with change in airflow, the gauge
vacuum reading changes again.
 Thus, we need to make different
alterations.

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Vacuum Pump
 Vacuum level depends upon the total
amount of air flow through the vacuum
pump.
 Any alteration in a particular suction box
alters the total airflow and hence vacuum
level in other suction boxes.

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Machines in Developing World
 Most of the paper machines in developing
world are assigned for many different
grades, raw materials, and basis weight
range.
 Vacuum level settings for one grade may
or may not work for other grades.

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Designing Barometric Legs
 The trouble with barometric leg design is
its simplicity.
 Barometric legs allow a significant
flexibility from the design parameters.
 Often, it is considered a too simple job,
and the barometric leg dimensions are
just copied from other installations rather
than proper designing.

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Thinking Outside the Box
 This shows the need to think beyond the
conventional barometric legs, and explore
possibilities to have a better vacuum
control with these.
 Let’s have a quick look with the problems
encountered.

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Non-Linear Vacuum
 Quite often we face a problem that the
dewatering rate is too high from a
particular box even if the vacuum valve
opening is slightly increased.
 If you close the valve slightly again, the
drainage (almost) ceases.
 This finally results in more vacuum in a
particular suction box than actually
desired.
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Larger Seal Pits
 Seal pits are designed on the basis of
barometric leg volume. The more is the
volume of seal pit, the more will be the
retention time in this and hence the
possibility for slime generation.

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Ideas to Improve Design
 The first major problem is related to
control.
 If you evaluate on the basis of operational
data you will find that the initial suction
box handles much more water compared
to the last one.
 For air, the situation is reversed.

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Conventional Barometric Legs
 Conventionally, many mills have installed
barometric legs of almost the same design
and size.
 This generally results in too overdesigned
barometric legs, particularly in the last
section.
 The concept indicates we MUST use two
or three different designs for better
control.
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New Design?
 There is nothing new. Only, we must
design each leg separately.
 The idea is to use three/four different
barometric leg types; with larger, medium
and smaller leg water line size.
 Each leg must be adequate and fully
capable of handling the desired flow.

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Dewatering Control
 We can use flow control valves to restrict
flow rate.
 But, the problem is that if drainage is
more at a particular vacuum, and we
restrict water flow, after some time, the
water level will reach nearly at same level
as the box, and hammering will start.
 That is why, good airflow control valve is
a must to get desired vacuum.
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Dewatering Control
 In the initial suction boxes, even a minor
change in gauge vacuum level results in
significant variations in dewatering rates.
 This means we need better vacuum
control in these boxes.

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Vacuum => Dewatering
 In the initial suction boxes, web is less dry,
hence, airflow will be less. Furthermore,
we need lesser vacuum level. Thus the
airflow would be very low.
 As the dewatering is too sensitive to
applied vacuum in the initial sections,
oversized valves are the main reason of
problems.

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Smaller Valves!
 Yes! In the initial suction boxes, the size of
valve should be very small. Furthermore,
as these boxes are too sensitive, we need
fine control valves like V-notch ball valves
or even the needle valves.
 But, in the later sections, air valves are of
higher sizes, while the water pipe (bottom
side) is of much smaller diameter.

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Valve Size
 A simple technique to check if the valve
size is higher than the desired one is to
check if the valve opening is too little.
 If this is the case, replace the valve with a
lower size one.
 Typically, if the valve opening is between
25%-75%, the valve is suitable.
 Refer to sample calculations on the next
slide for an insight of designing process in
brief.
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Typical figures

 Water removed is nearly 30 times more

in first box compared to sixth.
 Airflow is 50 times more in last box
compared to first.
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Initial Suction Boxes
 A minor change in initial suction box
vacuum level can result in a significant
change in dewatering rate in these boxes.
 For a better control on dewatering, one
needs to give more attention to vacuum
levels.
 Valves like needle valves, or even better V-
notch valves can be considered for such
applications.
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Finishing Suction Boxes
 Here, an excess vacuum level does not
yield in proportionate savings in
dewatering.
 Thus after a limit, benefits of additional
vacuum diminish. However, the drag load
on wire keeps on increasing with applied
vacuum.
 That means- more drive power, more
wire wear (poor wire life), and more wear
of suction box tops.
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Finishing Suction Boxes
 That is why a good vacuum control of
these is important.
 A good control should include a set point
based methodology, where the valve
opening is automatically adjusted to
ensure desired vacuum level.

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Future Scope
 After having an individual barometric leg
vacuum control, a future modification of
having a “TOTAL WET END VACUUM
CONTROL” system.
 This system would be a PLC based
system to control the followings-
◦ Vacuum level in individual boxes
◦ Header vacuum level
◦ Vacuum pump speed through a VFD

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 By:
D K Singhal
[email protected]

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