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A pump that does not operate at its best efficiency point • The number and types of bends, valves etc within
will use excessive energy; this is both expensive and the pipeline
damaging to the environment.
• The viscous characteristics of the liquid being pumped
When specifying a pump or pumps the two essential pieces
of information required are: Considerations
As flow in a pipeline increases the friction head generated
1. The volumetric flow rate the pumps must deliver. also increases. Therefore on duty assist pump
configurations the head (pressure) each pump must be able
2. The total heads (pressures) they must generate to to generate should equate to the static head plus the
deliver the desired flow rates friction head produced at the maximum flow rate. The
maximum flow rate is the combined flow rate of all the
pumps that can possibly run together.
Definitions
Similarly this principle must be applied when using variable
Total head speed pumps where the flow rate and head generated will
The addition of static head plus friction head. change with the speed of the pump.
Friction head To view the theoretical effects of different flow rates, pipe
The head lost in overcoming friction through piping, dimensions, roughness values, and the influence of settled
fittings and valves. solids in the pipe, use the 'Friction head calculator' on our
website www.flowcheck.co.uk
Efficiency points System curve
The black curve rising from the lower left hand side to the
The efficiency of each component in a pumping unit, pump, upper right hand side.
motor, transmission (shaft, coupling, gears, etc), can be
calculated by dividing the output power by the input power. This shows the head generated within a pipe system at
To the user who wishes to pump the maximum liquid for different flow rates. This information is essential to enable
the minimum cost the most important parameter is the a pump to be accurately specified.
overall efficiency of the pumping unit:
Pump curve
The blue curve sloping from the top left hand side to the
Overall efficiency = Liquid power delivered by the pump
lower right hand side.
÷ Input power to the motor
This shows the flow the pump is capable of delivering
The flow delivered by centrifugal and axial pumps, as when pumping against different heads. The lower the
commonly used in Water and Wastewater applications, head the greater the flow delivered by the pump.
will vary depending on the head they are pumping against.
There is a maximum head they are capable of delivering Power curve
and also a best efficiency point at which they are running The green curve rising from halfway up the left hand axis
at their optimum efficiency. to the top right corner.
For greatest economy a pump needs to be matched to its This shows the input power to the motor and should be
pipe system so that under normal running conditions it read against the scale on the right hand axis, Power - kW.
operates at its best efficiency point.
Overall efficiency
Installing a pump that is designed to deliver greater heads The red curve rising from the bottom left hand corner to
than actually required is likely to have a higher operational the centre of the graph and then falling to the lower right
cost than one closely matched to the needs of the system. hand side.
Figure 2
The solid blue and green traces in Figure 3 again show the 1. The flow rate the pumps need to deliver
same pump and power curves as Figure 1 and the same
system curve in black. The broken (dashed) lines show the 2. The heads (pressures) they must generate to achieve the
effects to the pump and power curves when a larger desired flow rates
impeller and slower motor configuration are used.
Flowcheck can supply you with this information.
Both pump curves cross the system curve when they are
delivering approximately 90 l/s at 18m head. At this point
For pumps to deliver the required flow rates, and operate
however, the pump fitted with the larger impeller and
at their best efficiency points, they have to be carefully
slower motor is using approximately 30% more power than
matched to the hydraulic characteristics of the pipeline they
the original pump. Although both pumps are equally
deliver into.
capable of pumping 90 l/s at 18m head, in this instance
the one with the larger impeller and slower motor will cost Flowcheck specialise in performing surveys of pumping
30% more to run at this duty point. systems. We take on-site measurements to determine the
pressures generated at varying flow rates.
Figure 4