Objectives

The objective of this practical is to study the performance characteristics of centrifugal pumps.

Introduction
Pumps are one of the main fluid dynamic machine category, which generates high fluid pressure to transfer liquid from one location to other .The pumps can be divided in to 2 main categories by considering the principal of operation: positive displacement pumps and rotor dynamic pumps .Positive displacement pumps operate due to the change of the volume occupied by the fluid in the machine, while the rotor dynamics pumps operates by rotor dynamic action. Centrifugal pumps are fall in to the category of rotor dynamic pumps. It consists of an impeller rotating within a casting. The fluid enters axially to the impeller and whirled radially and tangentially until it leaves the impeller. The main performance characteristic parameters of the pumps include the head, flow rate, efficiency and power.

Calculations

Hd Discharge head Hs -Suction head

Cos(

Results

250 200 Head (Hd) 150 100 50 0 0 0.0002 0.0004 Flow rate Q (m3s-1) 0.0006

1.6 1.4 1.2 Efficiency (n) 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 0.0001 0.0002 0.0003 Flow rate(Q) 0.0004 0.0005 0.0006

P vs Q
300 Electric power(W) 250 200 150 100 50 0 0 0.0001 0.0002 Q(m^3/s) 0.0003 0.0004 0.0005 0.0006

Discussion
Cavitation
In centrifugal pumps the liquid flow area of the pump impeller is generally smaller than the area of the pump suction piping .When the pumping liquid enter the eye of the centrifugal pump ,as a result of decrease in flow it increases the flow velocity and reduce the pressure. This pressure drop increases with the pump flow rate. If this pressure drop is large enough, it may cause the liquid to flash to vapor . All the vapor bubbles formed by the pressure drop swept by the impeller van by the flow of the fluids. When the bubbles enter a region where local pressure is greater than the saturation pressure out of the impeller vane, the vapor bubbles collapse. The formation and the collapse of the vapor bubbles is called cavitation.

NPSH
NPSH- Net positive suction head is used to describe the absolute pressure of a fluid at the inlet to a pump minus the vapor pressure of the liquid .The resultant value is known as the Net positive suction head available. The elements used to calculate NPSH are all expressed in absolute head units. The NPSH is calculated from: NPSH = Fluid surface pressure + positive head pipework friction loss fluid vapor pressure

Possible errors in the practical

Frictional losses at the pipes Errors in measuring the flow rate Energy losses due to the formation of wakes near valves.