BY SIDDHARTH KALE

A Jet Pump is a type of pump where the energy from

one fluid (liquid or gas) is transferred to another fluid via the venturi effect. A jet pump is actually a combination of a centrifugal pump and a water ejector.
It is a type of impeller-diffuser pump that is used to

draw water from wells. It can be used for both shallow (25 feet or less) and deep wells (up to about 200 feet.)

 Once the pump has been used once (having been manually

primed initially) it remains full of water so that on start up the pump circulates water from the discharge through the jet and back into the suction side. As before, air is sucked through and bubbles out of the discharge, while (until the pump primes) the water falls back and recirculates. The jet causes low pressure in the suction line and entrains air which goes through the impeller and is discharged, hence water is gradually drawn up the suction line. As soon as all the air is expelled from the system, most of the discharge goes up the discharge line, but a proportion is fed back to the nozzle and increases the suction considerably compared with the effect of a centrifugal impeller on its own. Therefore, this kind of pump not only pulls a higher suction lift than normal, but the pump can reliably run on "snore" (i.e. sucking a mixture of air and water without losing its prime)

 This jet pump principle can also be applied to boreholes as

indicated in the next slide. An arrangement like this allows a surface-mounted pump and motor to "suck" water from depths of around 10-20m; the diffuser, after the jet serves to raise the pressure in the rising main and prevent cavitation. Although the jet circuit commonly needs 1.5-2 times the flow being delivered, and is consequently a source of significant power loss, pumps like this are sometimes useful for lifting sandy or muddy water as they are not so easily clogged as a submerged pump. In such cases a settling tank is provided on the surface between the pump suction and the jet pump discharge to allow the pump to draw clearer water.

 ADVANTAGES:

1. Useful in situations where it is difficult to obtain sufficient submergence of the foot valve, or where a water source may occasionally be pumped dry due to its self priming ability. 2. Useful for lifting sandy or muddy water as they are not so easily clogged as a submerged pump. DISADVANTAGES: 1. Greater complexity and therefore cost. 2. Reduced efficiency since power is used in pumping water through the jet, (although some of this power is recovered by the pumping effect of the jet).

 Useful in situations where shallow water is being

suction pumped and priming is difficult. These are shallow-well single pipe type or deep-well and multistage type since their efficiency reduces substantially when used for pumping greater than 50ft. Pumps like this are sometimes useful for lifting sandy or muddy water Used where Suction pumping is essential, then a selfpriming pump of this kind can offer a successful solution. Can be used in light domestic bore well applications