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I. Objective
The objective of this laboratory is to explore the operating characteristics of a simple centrifugal pump. Tests will be conducted using an experimental apparatus which will allow for various parametric variations in a closedloop pump/pipe system. Data acquisition will be by means of a computer-controlled interface. Data will be reduced and presented is a form typically used to analyze pump characteristics. Results will be discussed in a laboratory report.
II. Background
Pumps are used to transport liquids, gases and slurries are an integral part of our everyday lives. Homes, appliances, businesses, factories, schools, and vehicles all depend upon pumps to move fluids for process heat transfer, indoor air comfort heating and cooling, domestic water supply, and industrial processes. Gasoline and natural gas are pumped hundreds of miles though underground pipelines to distribution terminals and processing plants, including one in Champaign, Illinois. Nationwide, there are approximately 95,000 miles of refined products pipelines. Refined products pipelines are found in almost every state in the U.S., and vary in diameter from small 8 to pipes 42 inches or larger.
Figure 1. Major refined petroleum products pipelines in the 48 state US region Crude oil is pumped across the tundra of Alaska via the 800-mile-long Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), one of the largest pipeline systems in the world. It stretches from Prudhoe Bay on Alaskas North Slope, through rugged and beautiful terrain to Valdez, the northernmost ice-free port in North America. Since pipeline startup in 1977, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the operator of TAPS, has transported over 15 billion barrels of oil.
Figure 2. Photograph of a portion of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System and map of pipeline Pumps are used to transport sanitary sewage to treatment plants, and to transport the effluent to creeks, rivers, lakes, or the sea. Specialized pumps are used to pump concrete in building construction when access for a truck is limited. It has been estimated that industrial pumping systems account for nearly 25% of industrial electrical energy demand in the United States. profitability of businesses. The pump is the oldest fluid-energy transfer device known, with at least two designs dating to 250-1000 BCE: the undershot-bucket waterwheels used in Asia and Africa, an example of which is shown in Figure 3; and the Archimedes screw pump, shown in Figure 4, which is still being used today to transport solid-liquid mixtures such as concrete slurry. Machines that move fluids are categorized by the type of fluid, (e.g. liquid or gas) and the amount of pressure rise caused in the fluid. A machine that moves a liquid is typically called a pump, while other machines that move gases have different names, depending upon the approximate pressure increase produced. A fan causes a pressure rise on the order of a few inches of water (small pressure rise); a blower increases pressure in the range of 1 atmosphere of pressure (moderate pressure rise); and a compressor increases pressure much higher, up to many atmospheres (large pressure rise). This laboratory will focus only on pumps. Providing pump users with strategic, broad-based energy management and performance optimization solutions will reduce electricity consumption and also can improve the bottom-line
Figure 3. Example of an early undershot waterwheel. Flowing stream water is used to turn a large wheel, providing power for a mechanical operation.
Figure 4. Archimedes screw pump. Rotation of screw traps liquid and raises it from a river to a canal Pumps are categorized in two basic types: positive-displacement and rotary-dynamic (or dynamic). Positivedisplacement pumps (PDP) drive fluid flow by changing the volume of a chamber through which the fluid passes. The chamber increases and decreases in volume by application of external power. Fluid is drawn into the chamber as the volume increases, and is forced out the discharge port as the volume is reduced. Examples include piston pumps, gear pumps, and mammalian hearts. In the case of the piston pump, fluid is drawn into the chamber (or cylinder) as the piston is moved to the bottom of its stroke, maximizing the cylinder volume. When the piston begins to move to the top of the stroke, minimizing the cylinder volume, fluid flows out of the discharge port. A series of valves causes the flow to move in the desired direction. In a mammalian heart, the chamber increases in 3
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 5. Three examples of positive displacement pumps: (a) manual water well pump; (b) double rotary gear pump; (c) mammal heart Dynamic pumps move fluid by imparting a momentum increase to the fluid via a set of rotating blades or vanes, typically of a specialized design. Unlike the positive displacement pump, there is not a closed or trapped volume. Fluid continuously moves into the pump body, around the blades, and out through the discharge port. As a result, the flow is steady, rather than pulsating like the PDP. Dynamic pumps also tend to produce a higher flow rate. However, they are not very effective with high viscosity fluids, and also require the inlet chamber to be primed, that is filled with liquid, in order to start the pumping action, whereas PDPs are self-priming. For this laboratory, we will confine our study to rotary dynamic centrifugal pumps, or simply centrifugal pumps. As seen in the Figure 6, a centrifugal pump consists of an outer casing, an impeller (which rotates), and an expanding area scroll. Fluid is drawn toward the center of rotation of the impeller (1), and is accelerated by the movement of the vanes on the impeller as it moves tangentially outward. The fluid velocity and pressure increase while in the impeller. As the flow diffuses (decelerates) in the expansion zone, a further increase in pressure results at the discharge point (2). The most common design of impeller blades is backward facing, as shown; however other special designs include radial and forward facing. Fixed vanes may also be used to help steer the flow toward the exit, resulting in improved flow and/or pressure increase.
Figure 6. Schematic of centrifugal pump A. Basic Output Parameters The pressure rise across a pump is often referred to as the head and is given the symbol h. The units of head are feet or inches of water in the English system and mm or m in the SI system. The net head, H, is an important parameter in characterizing pump performance. It represents the maximum discharge pressure (or pressure rise above the inlet pressure) for a pump at a particular flow rate. The easiest way to visualize this is to imagine the discharge pipe from the pump being connected to a very long, vertical pipe. The head is literally the height of the column of water that the pump would support. One can also think of it as the height, h, in a manometer. We will assume steady state flow, and use the Bernoulli equation to determine the head rise between the inlet and outlet of the pump, points 1 and 2 in Figure 6. If losses due to viscous work and heat transfer are ignored, the change in head H is shown as
(1)
where p is pressure, is fluid density, V is fluid velocity, g is the gravitational constant, z is the elevation, hs is the pump head supplied and hf the losses. We can simplify this equation for our pump further by assuming the change in height z is very small. Many pumps are set up so that the inlet and outlet velocities are the same (same pipe area) or very. In this lab, the inlet and outlet pipe diameters are not the same; therefore we will account the contribution to the total head from the velocity change. With the elevation change neglected the head is
(2)
In equation (2), the pressure term is called the static head and the velocity term is called the dynamic head. A change in elevation or z is called the elevation head.
(3)
where Q is the volumetric flow rate of fluid through the pump. This term is often called the water horsepower or hydraulic power, implying that it is the measure of power imparted into the fluid stream. While sometimes given the term horsepower, it does not automatically mean the units of the hydraulic power are horsepower. In the case of our pump the power will be in units of Watts. The power required to drive the pump Pb, called brake power or mechanical power, is determined by measurement of the shaft torque and rotational speed:
(4)
where n is the rotational speed in revolutions per unit time, and T is shaft torque. If there were no losses in the pump, one would expect Pw and Pb to be equal, but of course this is never the case. Thus, we can define a pump efficiency as the ratio of power added to the fluid Pw to the power supplied Pb (via an electric motor or other source):
(5)
Obviously, one goal as a designer of a pumping system is to make the efficiency as high as possible to minimize power consumption. But this can be difficult as centrifugal pumps often are required to operate over a wide range of conditions. In this case, the designer needs to optimize based on the range of operating conditions in which the pump will be. Shown in Figure 7 are curves for Power, Efficiency, and Head vs. Flowrate for a typical centrifugal pump operating at a constant speed. Note that as flow decreases to zero, the Head becomes maximum. Conversely, as flow increases to maximum, the head goes to a minimum. This relationship is called a rising characteristic curve. A stable head-capacity characteristic curve is one in which there is only one possible flow rate Q for a given Head, as shown here. For this pump, the maximum head is slightly greater that 1.1m. The optimum efficiency for this pump is around 40%, at a flow rate of about 0.7 dm3/s. As noted earlier, if this pump was required to operate over a flow rate ranging from 0.3 to 0.9 dm3/s, it would operate at a non-ideal point for much of that range. In this case, it would be better to find a pump that had either a flatter efficiency curve or one that peaked at a lower flow rate. Notice on the power-flowrate curve that, below the optimum efficiency point, the power required is almost constant over a wide range of flow rates. However, the change in head is significant over this same range.
Figure 7. Centrifugal pump characteristic plot at constant speed B. Cavitation Cavitation occurs when the local static pressure falls below the vapor pressure of the liquid. At this point the liquid flashes to vapor forming vapor cavities in the fluid and changes the flow pattern. The flow may become unsteady which can cause the flow to oscillate and the pump to vibrate. If the local surface pressure of the vapor cavity becomes too high, the vapor cavity collapses and causes surface damage to the impeller. Cavitation can be avoided if the pressure everywhere is kept above the vapor pressure of the operating fluid, in our case water. The vapor pressure is the saturation pressure at a temperature. We can look up the vapor pressure at the temperature of the water in a thermodynamics book. For water at 20C, the vapor pressure is 2.34 kPa.
Component Identification 1-Water reservoir 2-Gate valve to control discharge flow rate 3-Turbine-type flow sensor 4-Pump and motor 5-Pressure sensor 6-Ball valve to control inlet (suction) pressure 7-Temperature sensor 8-Baseplate 9-Drain valve 10-Drain hole 11-Extra impeller 12-Drain valve in pump casing 13-Pressure sensor
Figure 8. Schematic of centrifugal pump apparatus Water is held in a transparent reservoir (1) and supplied to the inlet of the pump (4) through plastic tubing. A valve (6) can be used to change the inlet restriction to the pump, causing a change in the inlet suction pressure. A pressure sensor (5) and temperature sensor (7) are used to measure the inlet conditions of the water. The pump housing is transparent so that the impeller can be observed while rotating. The discharge from the pump is through plastic tubing, with a valve (2) used to vary the flow rate and pressure. A pressure sensor (13) is used to measure the discharge pressure, and a turbine flow meter (3) measures the volumetric flow rate of water. Water returns to the reservoir (1), which contains baffles to settle the flow and separate air bubbles before is it drawn into the inlet tube. The general operation of the apparatus will be through a software control panel on a PC. The operator will set pump speed through the computer control panel, and adjust valve settings on the apparatus that will result in changes in pressure, temperature, and flowrate. These values are monitored on the computer display, and once the desired
Figure 9. Impellers used in pump experiment The centrifugal pump control diagram window is shown in Figure 10. Labeled in the figure are the locations of the on/off switch, the buttons to switch between the control diagram and the table windows, the record data button and the button to create a new data table. Also shown is the location to set pump speed, which is done in percent of the maximum speed possible. To set the speed, you can either type the percent desired in the box or use the arrows on the side to adjust the speed. The red flow control valve (outlet valve) is shown, as well as the flow direction on the pump schematic in Figure 10. This valve controls the flow rate of the pump. The on/off switch is labeled in Figure 10 and is a 1 to indicate the pump is on and a 0 to indicate the pump is off. Clicking on the 0 or 1 will turn the pump on or off. A sample of the table window with a set of sample data is shown in Figure 11. Notice the units of the measured parameters in the table headings. You may need to convert some of the values to different units for your calculations. Also needed for your calculations are the pipe inlet and outlet diameters, which are 23.5 mm and 17.5 mm, respectively. Note that the inlet and outlet pressures are measured with respect to atmospheric pressure. This is why it is possible in this lab to have a negative inlet pressure. In your calculations you will need the pressure difference between the outlet and the inlet.
View diagram
View Table
Record data
Valve
Flow Direction
ON/OFF button
Figure 11. Example of table in pump software where the data is recorded. 10
V. Technical Report
A formal written report is not required for this experiment. You are responsible for the plots, table, and the discussion questions listed below. Your responses to the discussion questions are to be typed with 1-1/2 to double spacing, using a character font no smaller than 12 point on 8 by 11 inch paper. The margins should be at least 1 inch on all sides. Grammar, spelling and sentence structure will also be taken into account as part of the formatting section of grading. Include a reference section if necessary. Plots, tables and other figures should be prepared using appropriate software such as Excel, Origin, or equivalent. For the plots, keep all axis limits and divisions the same so that you can easily compare results from different plots. Be sure to connect consecutive data points with straight line segments, and use symbols that allow easy discernment of the different data sets. Read the Laboratory Technical Report Requirements handout and follow the guidelines included for all aspects of plot and table preparation. A. Data Reduction You will need to calculate the total head, brake power, water power, and efficiency for the plots and table. Remember to check units carefully, as pump specifications often mix SI and English unit freely.
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VI. References
1. 2. 3. 4. Fluid Mechanics, 4th Edition, Frank M. White, WCB McGraw-Hill, 1999. Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, 4th Edition, Robert W. Fox and Alan T. McDonald, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1992. Instruction Manual: Centrifugal Pump Demonstration Unit, Armfield, Inc. The Hydraulic Institute, http://www.pumps.org
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