Practice & Operations
Pump Performance
Monitoring
Juned Ansari, Secure Meters Limited
A Comparison Between Conventional and Thermodynamic Methods
E Thermodynamic Method
nergy conservation is the need of the hour. Pumps
are found in abundance in almost every industry and
utility. Of them, the most common are centrifugal
pumps due to their great versatility and wider operating
range. hey vary in size from a few kilowatts to towering
megawatts and operate between eciencies of 20 and 90 per-
cent. A poorly selected pump or a pump that does not run
at optimum design duty point is a classic symbol of wasted
energy. It, therefore, becomes important to evaluate the per-
formance of these pumps using the available methods.
he operating versatility of centrifugal pumps have
made them widely used despite the fact that this versatil-
ity does not guarantee an energy ecient operation over a
wide operating range. A centrifugal pump is most ecient
at its best eciency point (BEP), which may or may not be
its duty point. Again, the important term is operating point
rather than the duty point or BEP, which may or may not
coincide with the latter two. herefore, selecting the proper
pump for a particular application becomes important, giving
due consideration to the future requirements and attempting
not to under- or overestimate the design margins and end up
with an undersized or oversized pump.
When a centrifugal pump is already in place, nothing
much can be done except to evaluate, accurately, the operat-
ing point and the associated parameters governing the spe-
cic power consumption and to make the pump operate as
close as possible to the duty point to attain energy eciency
in a real sense. his can be achieved either by measuring the
ow, power and head and calculating the eciency (conven-
tional method) or measuring the eciency, power and head
and calculating the ow (thermodynamic technique).
With the increasing cost of electricity, more importance
is due to the operational costs rather than the capital cost
of the machine set. his approach is life cycle cost (LCC)
of the asset. On average, depending on the application, the
operational cost is almost 60 to 65 percent of the total LCC
of the machine. his article discusses the advantages of asset
performance evaluation using the thermodynamic method
instead of the conventional method.
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Unlike conventional methods involving ow measurements
for eciency evaluation, the thermodynamic method mea-
sures the ineciency of the machine, making the readings
more reliable. his is an ideal method. It is suitable for
smaller machines, too. he method is based on the rst law
of thermodynamics and requires dierential pressure and
temperature measurements across the machine to evaluate
its eciency. When this is combined with power measure-
ments, ow can be accurately calculated as shown below:
1 Pi x m x p
p = Q=
Cp x T xgxH
( 1+
gxH
)
Where,
Cp = Speciic heat of the luid (KJ/Kg-K)
T = Diferential temperature across the pump in mK
(milli Kelvin)
H = Pump head in meters (m)
Pi = Input power to the motor in kW
p = Pump eiciency (%)
Q = Pump low rate in m3s
m = Motor eiciency (%)
his method has been widely used for more than 25
years on more than 12,000 pumps, blowers, compressors
and hydro turbines throughout the world with great success.
Need for Performance Evaluation
As stated earlier, centrifugal pumps ratings vary from a few
kilowatts to megawatts. Even the operating eciencies vary
between 20 and 90 percent. Monitoring the operating e-
ciencies becomes critical to get an idea of the energy savings
potential and also to visualize the asset condition. he poorer
the machine, the more the operating cost and the higher the
energy savings potential.
A pump operating away from its duty point badly aects
JUNE 2011 77
 Practice & Operations

Figure 1. The BEP, duty point and operating point Figure 2. The radial force variation

the life of the seals, bearings, wear rings and shaft. he radial
forces in the pump are lowest at the duty point and increases
with the shifting of the operating point on either side of it.
herefore, to maintain the assets integrity, to have a record of
the operating eciency and assess the energy savings potential,
pump monitoring becomes a regular requirement.
Advantages of the Thermodynamic
Versus the Conventional Method
he conventional method involves the measurement of ow for
an eciency calculation. So, its accuracy largely depends on
the accuracy of the ow measurement in addition to that of
power and head. However, using the best of techniques, the
ow measurement accuracyusing a non-intrusive, ultrasonic
ow meter (USFM)is bound to be less than 5 percent in
the eld. his can be improved by increasing the number of
passes with a USFM or permanently installing a magnetic
ow meter in the line. Both these, however, are not justied
as the former makes the eciency evaluation too costly while
the latter requires pipeline modication (cutting the pipe and
installing the magnetic ow meter) for permanent installation.
Noise and vibration is another factor that largely inuences
the accuracy of ow measurement and, therefore, the eciency
calculation. Besides this, accurate ow measurement using
USFM requires at least 10 times the pump ange diameter of
straight length pipe work for its installation. his number limits
the accuracy of the ow measurement for existing installations
in which such distances are not available. All these limitations
make the conventional methods uncertainty higher than that
of the thermodynamic method. Sample calculations in Table 1
illustrate this fact.
he pump eciency calculated conventionally is 80.25
percent. he uncertainty associated with the eciency calcula-
tion is 5.05 percent using the root mean square method. he
uncertainties in power and ow measurement are assumed to be
0.7 percent and 5 percent respectively, while the uncertainty
in specic hydraulic energy is calculated as 0.31 percent.
he uncertainty in eciency is directly governed by the
uncertainty in ow measurement. herefore, the ow measure-
ment has to be most accurate to precisely evaluate the pump
eciency using the conventional method.
he pump eciency calculated by the thermodynamic
method is 83.73 percent. he uncertainty associated with e-
ciency calculation is 2.11 percent using the root mean square
method. he uncertainties in pressure, velocity head, elevation
head and dierential temperature are assumed as 0.3 percent,
5 percent, 0.01 meter and 3 milli Kelvin, respectively.
It can be seen that the uncertainty in eciency is directly

Table 1. Conventional test data

Suction Suction Suction Delivery Delivery Delivery Measured Motor Measured Pump
Pressure Probe Pipe Pressure Probe Pipe Power Efficiency Flow l/s Efficiency
kPa Elevation Diameter kPa Elevation Diameter kW % %
mm mm mm mm
23.44 120 400 637.39 120 300 120.34 94.34 148.12 80.25

78 JUNE 2011 www.pump-zone.com PUMPS & SYSTEMS

 Table 2. Thermodynamic test data (Remaining data is the same as above)
Differential Water Measured Motor Pump Calculated Uncertainty in
Temperature mK Temperature C Power kW Efficiency % Efficiency % Pump Flow l/s Efficiency %
34.54 14.12 120.34 94.34 83.73 154.42 2.11

governed by the uncertainty in the dierential temperature energy management group.

measurement. herefore, the dierential temperature measure-
ment has to be most accurate to precisely evaluate the pump
eciency using thermodynamic method.
Conclusion
As seen above, uncertainty in the eciency evaluation is high
at 5.05 percent for the conventional method as compared
to 2.11 percent for the thermodynamic method. Moreover,
uncertainty with the conventional method will likely get worse
at lower ows for the same pump curve due to the induction of
turbulence and noise in the ow.
It is also worthwhile to note that the conventional method
may misguide plant personnel as it has a tendency to make a
pump look better or worse depending on the ow measure-
ment. During the acceptance testing for new installations, it
may cause outright rejection or acceptance of the pump, which
may cause losses to the company or the pump manufacturer.
At the same time, it has an equal tendency to show a higher
or lower energy savings potential, which is misleading for the
Energy savings potential helps the plant personnel with
decision making. It helps them decide whether to undertake
a particular project on a monetary savings basis or not. It also
helps them decide whether to go for reaping clean development
mechanism (CDM) benets or carbon credit earnings. All in
all, if the factor used for decision making in itself is misleading,
the decisions will also be misleading. his will eat up the noble
cause of energy management and energy conservation. It is rec-
ommended to get your energy consuming pumps (for example,
boiler feed, cooling water and condensate extraction pumps)
tested thermodynamically to supplement decision power.
P&S
Juned Ansari is a gold medalist mechanical engineer and a
qualied energy auditor working as energy eciency ana-
lyst at Secure Meters Limited. he companys website can be
reached at www.securetogether.com. Ansari can be reached
at juned.ansari@securetogether.com or junedansari@hot-
mail.com.

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