IMPROVING FRACKING POWER & EFFICIENCY
The Thunder 5000 HP Quintuplex Pump, the first 5,000-hp offering from GD Energy Products, can reduce the size of a frac
spread by 30% compared with a 3,000-hp pump. To compensate for the increased stress that a 5,000-hp pump places on its
components, the design features a longer stroke length and a harder lubricant to reduce scuffing and friction.

potential points of failure at the frac site, minimizing the need for
maintenance. “Your power density is greater when you run one 5,000-hp
pump versus two 2,500-hp pumps,” Mr Hall said. “Instead of
needing 12 pumps on location, you only need six. That gets you
efficiencies from a manpower and a safety standpoint. You have
fewer pumps operating over a smaller area, so you’ve got less of a
chance for issues to pop up.”
A 5,000-hp pump can also generate higher flow rates at equiva-
lent pressures to a lower-horsepower pump, helping companies
boost production without increasing run time. Whereas running
a 3,000-hp pump at 12,000 psi will get you approximately 9.2 bbl/
min, Mr Hall explained, running a 5,000-hp pump at the same
pressure will get you 15.3 bbl/min.

One of the bigger challenges in operating a 5,000-hp pump is
the potential for increased stress on the pump’s components. Mr
Hall estimated that a typical 5,000-hp pump “essentially cuts in
half” the life of its components when operating continuously at
maximum capacity. With that in mind, GD Energy Products pri-
oritized durability in the design of the Thunder 5000 to ensure it
can have the same uptime as a lower-horsepower pump.

To reduce scuffing, friction and adhesive wear, the company
developed a proprietary dry-film lubricant. The corrosion-resis-
tant coating is harder and denser than the base steel used to build
the frame of the pump, so it increases the load-bearing capacity
of the bearings. The lubricant also helps prevent the pump from
overheating when it operates at a higher horsepower.

“When you’re going to a higher horsepower, it’s not necessarily
just the stress of the components that you have to deal with but
also the speed at which that pump is turning,” Mr Hall said. “At
5,000 horsepower, that pump is spinning faster than it tradition-
ally has before, so you run the risk of a lot of heat generation. That
has a big impact on pump performance. It was important for us to
redesign our lubrication system so that we could pull that extra
heat that’s generated by the faster speeds out of the pump.”
The pump also features an 11-in. stroke length – the distance
traveled by each piston in an pump cycle – which is 3 in. longer
than the typical stroke length for a frac pump.

The longer stroke length enables frac fleets to extend consum-
able life while delivering the same horsepower, pressures and
flow rates but at slower speeds. While a shorter stroke length
enables a pump to accelerate to full power faster, it also shortens
the life of the pistons, increasing the need for maintenance.

Moreover, the new pump provides 37% more flow rate capacity
than a typical 8-in. stroke pump, which keeps both the pump’s
velocity and pump speed lower. This, in turn, slows the accumu-
lation of fatigue and consumable cycles, extending the life of the
pump and consumable components while outputting more vol-
ume per revolution, according to GD Energy Products. “Essentially,
this gets back to the total cost of ownership,” Mr Hall said. “Where
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