UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL, INDUSTRIAL AND AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

MECN 3007 THIRD YEAR ENGINEERING LABORATORY FORMAL REPORT

Title: Name: Student Number: Date:

Pump Performance Laboratory Kyle Bailey 442 563 13th March 2012 Group 29

UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL, INDUSTRIAL AND AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

INDIVIDUAL DECLARATION WITH TASK SUBMITTED FOR ASSESSMENT

I, (name) ___________________________________________, (Student number: _______________) am registered for Course No. ____________, (course name) __________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ in the year 20 _________. I herewith submit the following task, (title) ______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the above course.

I hereby declare the following: o I am aware that plagiarism (the use of someone elses work without their permission and / or without acknowledging the original source) is wrong;

I confirm that the work submitted herewith for assessment in the above course is my own unaided work except where I have explicitly indicated otherwise;

This task has not been submitted before, either individually or jointly, for any course requirement, examination or degree at this or any other tertiary educational institution;

I have followed the required conventions in referencing the thoughts and ideas of others;

I understand that the University of the Witwatersrand may take disciplinary action against me if it can be shown that this task is not my own unaided work or that I have failed to acknowledge the source of the ideas or words in my writing in this task.

Signature: ____________________________

Date: __________________________ 20 ______

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ABSTRACT A pump performance experiment was conducted on a Matheson and Bremner Norma Flow NF 32 160 centrifugal type water pump. Head rise, efficiency of the pump and power were analysed with varying flow rate and a series of dimensionless pump performance curves set up to better observe the results and determine the performance of another pump within the same family and compare our own data with that supplied by the manufacturers. Initially, calibration testing on the static head of the system and the output motor torque (converted and read as a force) had to be conducted and curves set up to ascertain whether or not the data would be accurate. The flow rate of the system was varied by means of a spear (control) valve and the pressure was measured by means of a differential pressure transducer placed in the system. The experiment was conducted for 3 different motor speeds whilst varying the flow rate at ten different intervals for every speed setting and recording the resulting pressure and force. The dimensionless coefficients for this family of pumps were then computed and the dimensionless curves for the system sketched. Upon comparing the estimated performance values of another pump with those of the manufacturers specification, deviations were found and as such, no conclusive evidence was determined that the performance curves obtained by plotting the experimental data were valid. The discussion section of this report discusses possible reasons for these deviations.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES NOMENCLATURE 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND 1.2 MOTIVATION 1.3 OBJECTIVES 2. APPARATUS 3. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 3.1 CALIBRATION 3.2 METHOD 3.3 SAFETY PRECAUTIONS 4. OBSERVATIONS 4.1 CALIBRATION TABLES 4.2 CALIBRATION RUNNING PLOTS 4.3 PRIMITIVE RECORDED DATA 5. DATA PROCESSING 6. RESULTS 7. ESTIMATING PERFORMANCE VALUES 8. DISCUSSION 9. CONCLUSION 10. APPENDIX A CALIBRATION CURVES 11. APPENDIX B UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS 12. APPENDIX C MANUFACTURERS SPECIFICATIONS 13. REFERENCES ii iii iv v vi vii 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 6 7 8 9 13 14 15 16 17 21 22

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: A Centrifugal Pump................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 2: Diagram of Norma Flow Centrifugal Pump .............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 3: Pressure reading vs. Flow Rate Running Plot ............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 4: Force Reading vs. Flow Rate Running Plot ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 5: Power Versus Flow Rate ........................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 6: Efficiency Versus Flow Coefficient .......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 7: Head Coefficient Versus Flow Coefficient ................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 8: Power Coefficient Versus Flow Coefficient .............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 9: Head Versus Flow Rate ............................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 10: Head Versus Flow Rate For 165mm Impellor Pump ............................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 12: Calibration Curve For The Transducer .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 13: Calibration Curve For The Strain Gauge ................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Transducer Calibration Results ................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Table 2: Strain Gauge Calibration Results ................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Table 3: Raw Data Taken At n = 1230 RPM ........................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Table 4: Calibrated Values for n = 1230 RPM.......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Table 5: Calibrated Values For n = 1840 RPM ......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Table 6: Calibrated Values For n = 2450 RPM ......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Table 7: Estimated Performance Values For Pump .................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

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NOMENCLATURE Variable Description Rotational speed Density of water Dimensionless head coefficient Dimensionless power coefficient Dimensionless flow coefficient d g H h n P Q T Impeller diameter Gravity Head rise Height Impeller rotational speed Power Flow rate Torque Units [rad/s] [kg/m] [1] [1] [1] [m] [m/s] [m] [m] [rev/s] [W] [m/s] [N.m]

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