Vol. 337 No. 8 (2026)
DOI https://doi.org/10.18799/24131830/2026/8/5495
Average flow rate effect on the reliability of submersible electric motors of borehole pumping units in uranium mining by the in-situ leaching method
Relevance. The reliability of borehole pumping units used for uranium in-situ leaching mining is largely determined by the performance of submersible electric motors. Operating a submersible electric motor in modes other than its nominal value reduces the expected service life of the equipment. Refining the probabilistic reliability model of electric motor, taking into account its load determined by the average well flow rate, leads to increased accuracy in calculating the need for new electric motors and directly impacts production profitability. Methods. Statistical methods, survival analysis, statistical hypothesis testing. Results and conclusions. For a previously obtained probabilistic reliability model of a submersible electric motor based on a mixture of two Weibull distributions, the parameter values were determined for groups of electric motors operating under different loads. The dependences of five reliability model parameters on the average flow rate were determined as piecewise linear approximations; their adequacy was confirmed using nonparametric goodness-of-fit tests. Based on the refined probabilistic reliability model, the dependence of the expected mean time to failure of a submersible electric motor on the average well flow rate was obtained. It was shown that operating an electric motor with flow rates significantly different from the nominal ones leads to a noticeable decrease in the mean time to failure. The resulting refined probabilistic reliability model can be used in information and control systems of a production complex to forecast the service life of submersible electric motors, as well as to calculate the need for electric motors required to replace failed ones over the planning horizon.
For citation: Efremov A.A., Noskov M.D., Filipas A.A., Shchipkov А.А. Average flow rate effect on the reliability of submersible electric motors of borehole pumping units in uranium mining by the in-situ leaching method. Bulletin of the Tomsk Polytechnic University. Geo Assets Engineering, 2026, vol. 337, no. 8, pp. 200–210. http://doi.org/10.18799/24131830/2026/8/5495
Keywords:
probabilistic reliability model, submersible electrical motor, uranium mining, in-situ leaching, average flow rate, nonparametric goodness-of-fit tests
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