Name Patrick

Surname Mufandaedza
Student number N0188037W
Assignment 1
Course Fluid flow 1 TCE 2105
Lecturer Eng S Ncube
Pumps
A pump is a machine used to move liquid through a piping system and to raise the pressure
of the liquid. It is a hydraulic machine which converts mechanical energy into hydraulic
energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they are
used to move fluid: direct lift, displacement and gravity pumps.

Pumps operate by some mechanism and consume energy to perform mechanical work by
moving the fluid. Pumps can be classified into two categories namely, positive displacement
pump and non-positive displacement pumps. A positive displacement pump can operate by
operating a fixed volume of fluid from inlet pressure section of the pump into the discharge
zone of the pump. It can be classified into two types namely rotary-type positive
displacement pump and reciprocating-type positive displacement pump.

Rotary type includes internal gear pumps and screw pumps whereas a reciprocating type
includes piston pumps and diaphragm pumps.

For a non-positive displacement pump, the volume of the liquid delivered for each cycle
depends on the resistance offered to the flow. A pump produces a force on the liquid that is
constant for each particular speed of the pump. Resistance in a discharge line produces a
force in the opposite direction. When these forces are equal, a liquid is in a state of
equilibrium and does not flow. A non-positive displacement pump can be classified as
centrifugal pump.

Centrifugal pumps Positive displacement pumps

Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages
Low cost – easy Do not produce large Self-priming Most of them
maintenance heads cannot operate with
a closed discharge
Does not produce a Do not work well Can work in two Might produce
lot of noise with high viscosity directions oscillations in
fluids discharge
Uniform discharge Efficiency is only Can pump liquids It may damage itself
high over a range with gases for a
small amount of
time
Can handle slurries Non-return valve is Consistent flowrate Larger number of
needed in the delivery wear parts than
to prevent backflow centrifugal pumps
Can be coupled to a
motor directly
A centrifugal pump has two main components which are an impeller and a stationary casing,
housing or volute. An impeller is attached to the rotating shaft. It consists a number of
blades also sometimes called vanes, arranged in a regular pattern around the shaft. For a
stationary casing, its shape is designed to reduce the velocity as the fluid leaves the impeller
and this decrease in kinetic energy is converted into an increase in pressure. The volute
shaped casing with its increase in area in the direction of flow, is used to produce an
essentially uniform velocity distribution as the fluid moves around the casing into the
discharge opening. As the impeller rotates, fluid is sucked in through the eye of the casing
and flows radially outwards. Energy is added to the fluid by the rotating blades and both
pressure and absolute velocity are increased as the fluid flows from the eye to the periphery
of the blades.

Diagram showing a centrifugal pump.

The moment of momentum equation indicates that the shaft torque required to rotate the
impeller is Tshaft = ṁ (r2Vθ2 – r1Vθ1) = ρ Q (r2Vθ2 – r1Vθ1)

Where ṁ = ṁ1 = ṁ2 , r2Vθ2 and r1Vθ1 are tangential components of the absolute velocity

Wshaft = Ẇshaft/ṁ = U2Vθ2 – U1Vθ1

Pump performance characteristics
Typical experimental arrangement for determining the head rise, ha, gained by a fluid
flowing through a pump.

Ha = (P2 – P1/ ϒ) + Z2 + Z1 + (V2)2/2g – (V1)2/2g

𝐻𝑦𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡
Overall efficiency of the pump is given by η =
𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑓𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡
Manometric efficiency is the ratio of the manometric head developed by the pump to the
head imparted by the impeller.

Volumetric efficiency is the ratio of volume of liquid delivered to actual volume of liquid
entering the impeller through suction pipe. Due to leakages, all the water sucked into
impeller does not pass through the delivery pipe. Mechanical efficiency is the ratio of power
delivered by the impeller to the power supplied at the rotor shaft by the prime mover.
𝐹𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
η=
𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑓𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟

The overall pump efficiency is affected by the hydraulic losses in the pump and in addition
by the mechanical losses in the bearings and seals. There may also be some power loss due
to leakage of the fluid between the back surface of the impeller hub plate and the casing.
This leakage contribution to the overall efficiency is called the volumetric loss.

As discharge is increased from zero, the break horsepower increases, with a subsequent fall
as the maximum discharge is approached. The efficiency is a function of the flowrate and
reaches a maximum value at some particular value of the flowrate commonly referred to as
the capacity of the pump.

Net positive suction Head

On the suction side of the pump, low pressures are commonly encountered with the
concomitant possibility of cavitation occurring within the pump. Cavitation occurs when the
liquid pressure at a given location is reduced to the vapor pressure of the liquid. When this
occurs, vapor bubbles form; this phenomenon can cause a loss in efficiency as well as
structural damage to the pump. Required NPSH, denoted NPSHR, that must be maintained
or exceeded, so that cavitation will not occur. Since pressure lower than those in the suction
pipe will develop in the impeller eye, it is usually necessary to determine experimentally, for
a given pump, the required NPSHR. Available NPSH, denoted NPSHA, represents the head

that actually occurs for the particular flow system. This value can be determined
experimentally or calculated if the system parameters are known.

The energy equation applied between the free liquid surface and a point on the suction side
of the pump near the impeller inlet

Patm/ϒ – Z1 = Ps/ϒ + (Vs)2/2g + ∑ hL

Where hL are head losses between the free surface and the pump impeller inlet.

NPSHA = Patm/ϒ – PV/ϒ – Z1 - ∑ hL

For a proper pump operation, NPSHA is greater than or equal to NPSHR
To select a pump for a particular application, it is necessary to utilize both the system curve,
determined by the system equation, and the pump performance curve. The intersection of
both curves represents the operating point for the system.

Pump sizing
Pump sizing involves matching the flow and pressure rating of a pump with the flow rate
and pressure required for the process. The mass flow rate of the system is established on
the process flow diagram by the mass balance. Achieving this mass flow rate requires a
pump that can generate a pressure high enough to overcome the hydraulic resistance of the
system of pipes, valves and so on that the liquid must travel through. This hydraulic
resistance is known as the system head. The system head is the amount of pressure
required to achieve a given flowrate in the system down stream of the pump. The system
head is not a fixed quantity. The faster the liquid flows, the higher the system head
becomes.

Pumps in series or parallel

Effect of operating pumps in (a) series and (b) in parallel

When two pumps are placed in series the resulting pump performance curve is obtained by

adding heads at the same flowrate. Both the actual head and the flowrate are increased but

neither will be doubled. The operating point is moved from (A) to (B).

Losses in centrifugal pumps

Hydraulic losses
  Skin friction and diffuser loss increase with the square of the flow rate and are
dominant at high flowrates.
 Volute losses depend on the impeller exit velocity and increase with decrease in flow
rate.
 Incidence losses increase on both sides of the design flow rate. Inlet blade angle
should be adjusted to minimise the losses.
 Disk friction and recirculation loss affect only the efficiency not the head.

Mechanical losses

 Disk friction between the fluid and the rotor.

 Mechanical friction on the main bearing glands.

Reduced flows
Unfavourable conditions which may occur separately or simultaneously when the pump is
operated at reduced flows

 Cases of heavy leakages from the casing, seal and stuffing box.
 Deflection and shearing of shafts
 Seizure and pump internals
 Close tolerances erosion
 Separation cavitation
 Product quality degradation
 Excessive hydraulic thrust
 Premature bearing failures

References
Jyh-Cheng S, Fundamentals Of Fluid Mechanics. National Taiwan University

Tuzson J, Centrifugal Pump Design, John Wiley & Sons Inc, New York

McCabe, W.L., Smith, J.C., and P. Harriott, “Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering,” 5th
edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1993.