Introduction

Most of the engineers and technicians very concern about pumps. The pump system used in
many applications for example water-cooling and fuel injection in car industry and pumping
oil and gas in energy industry. The variety of pumps cause the selection of it in industries
very crucial for satisfactory operation. The type of pump used in applications depend on the
type of liquid, the distance you wish to move the liquid and the rate of volume you need to
achieve (Davey, 2016). In this very experiment, the students got a chance to measure the
characteristic of operation of different pump. This training unit incorporates appropriate pipe
work and tanks to make the operation self-contained. The purpose of arrangement of
manually operated valves and pipes is for rapid and safe selection of any one-test pump. All
instrumentation for flow measurement, pump head, speed and power are included. In the
experiment, student are gaining experience to operate three types of pump which is the
Horizontal Single Stage Centrifugal Pump, a Positive Displacement Plunger Pump and a
Positive Displacement Gear Pump. Centrifugal pumps use an impeller which accelerate fluids
with the curved blades. The impeller is controlled by electric motor or combustion engine.
The positive displacement pumps used to move fix amount of fluid at regular interval. They
are built to be discharged with high pressure at the outlet (Bipat, 2018).

Theory

The multi-pump test rig has been designed to demonstrate the operating characteristic such as
head flow curves and efficiency of a series of different types of pumps. In this experiment,
we used a lot of formula to calculate the flow rate, total head, power output and input, and
efficiency for both plunger pump and positive displacement gear pump.

Horizontal Single Stage Pump

For the horizontal single stage pump or as known as plunger pump, the volumetric flowrate
(m3/hr) formula is :

𝑞 113.56 × 60
Q=( )×
100 1000
 Where as : Q = volumetric flowrate

q = flowrate (%)

Pump total head is also known as discharge head of water pump is a measure of the power of
the pump. The pressure that the pump can generate depends on the pump head. The pump
total head can be determined by using this equation.

𝐷𝑃 3 × 10.2 × 104
H = (𝑍𝑐2 − 𝑍𝑐1 ) + ( )×
100 𝜌𝑤 𝑔

Where as : H = pump total head

Zc2 = outlet distance from datum (380 mm)

Zc1 = inlet distance from datum (64 mm)

DP = differential pressure

Ρw = density of water (1000 kg/m3)

g = gravity (9.81 m/s2)

Pump power output and input can be calculated from different equation.

For the output power :

(𝜌𝑤 𝑔 𝐻𝑄)
𝑃𝑜 =
3600

Where as : Po = output power

Ρw = density of water (1000 kg/m3)

g = gravity (9.81 m/s2)

H = pump total head

Q = volume flowrate
For the input power :

𝑃𝑖 = 𝑃𝑀𝐼 − 𝑃𝑃1

Where as : Pi = input power

ΡM1 = motor input power

PP1 = pump 1 power at no load (70 W)

In this experiment we can calculate 3 types of efficiency. The efficiency of pump, the
volumetric efficiency and overall efficiency.

For the pump efficiency :

𝑃𝑜
𝐸𝑇𝐴 = × 100
𝑃𝑖

Where as : ETA = pump efficiency

Ρo = output power

Pi = input power

For the overall efficiency :

𝑃𝑜
𝐸𝑇𝐴𝑔𝑟 = × 100
𝑃𝑖𝑜

Where as : ETAgr = overall pump efficiency

Ρo = output power

Pio = input overall power

For the volumetric efficiency :

𝑄
𝐸𝑇𝐴𝑣 = × 100
𝑉 × 𝑁 × 60
 Where as : ETAv = volumetric efficiency

V = volume displacement

N = rotational speed

Positive Displacement Gear Pump

For positive displacement gear pump, we also can calculate the volumetric flow rate but with
different equation which is :

𝑞
𝑄= × 28.39 + 103 × 60
100

Where as : Q = volume flow rate

q = flowrate (%)

The pump total head for this type of pump can be determined by using equation :

𝑃𝑟 20 × 10.2 × 104
𝐻 = (𝑍𝑐2 − 𝑍𝑐1 ) + ( )×( )
100 𝜌𝑤 𝑔

Where as : H = pump total head

Zc2 = outlet distance from datum (380 mm)

Zc1 = inlet distance from datum (64 mm)

Pr = pressure

Ρw = density of water (1000 kg/m3)

g = gravity (9.81 m/s2)

Pump power output and input can be calculated.

For pump power output :

(𝜌𝑤 𝑔𝐻𝑄)
𝑃𝑜 =
3600

Where as : Po = output power

Ρw = density of water (1000 kg/m3)

g = gravity (9.81 m/s2)

H = pump total head

Q = volume flowrate

For pump power input :

𝑃𝑖 = 𝑃𝑀𝐼 − 𝑃𝑃3

Where as : Pi = input power

ΡM1 = motor input power

PP3 = pump 3 power at no load (50 W)

For the positive displacement gear pump we can calculate 3 types of efficiency. The efficiency
of pump, the volumetric efficiency and overall efficiency.

For the pump efficiency :

𝑃𝑜
𝐸𝑇𝐴 = × 100
𝑃𝑖

Where as : ETA = pump efficiency

Ρo = output power

Pi = input power
For the overall efficiency :

𝑃𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡

𝐸𝑇𝐴𝑔𝑟 = × 100
𝑃𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡

Where as : ETAgr = overall pump efficiency

For the volumetric efficiency :

𝑄
𝐸𝑇𝐴𝑣 = × 100
𝑉 × 𝑁 × 60

Where as : ETAv = volumetric efficiency

V = volume displacement

N = rotational speed

Reference

Davey, M. (2016, July 22). What Are the Differences Between Pump Types? Retrieved April
21, 2019, from https://www.globalpumps.com.au/blog/what-are-the-differences-between-
pump-types

Bipat, C. (2018, June 04). Main Types of Pumps: Centrifugal and Positive Displacement.
Retrieved April 21, 2019, from https://www.ny-engineers.com/blog/main-types-of-pumps