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Characteristics of centrifugal
pump
How it works
The impeller spins & throws water out.
Like swinging a bucket of water above your head and staying dry
or
Throwing clay on a potter's wheel and wearing it.
Flow
Pumping System Characteristics
Pump performance curve Head
• Relationship between head and flow
• Flow increase
• System resistance increases
• Head increases Flow
• Flow decreases to zero
• Zero flow rate: risk of pump burnout
•The head and flow rate determine the performance of a pump, which is
graphically shown in the Figure as the performance curve or pump
characteristic curve.
•The figure shows a typical curve of a centrifugal pump where the head
gradually decreases with increasing flow.
•As the resistance of a system increases, the head will also increase. This
in turn causes the flow rate to decrease and will eventually reach zero. A
zero flow rate is only acceptable for a short period without causing to the
pump to burn out.
Pumping System Characteristics
In most cases:
Total head = Static head + friction head
System
System
curve
Friction curve
head
System System
head head Friction
Static head head
Static head
Flow Flow
In most cases the total head of a system is a combination of static head and friction head
as shown in the figures
Left figure is system with a high static head (i.e. the destination reservoir is much higher
than the source)
Right figure is system with a low static head (i.e. the destination reservoir is not much
higher than the source)
Pump head - discharge curve
When a pump is filled with the fluid to be operated at
normal speed with discharge closed, the head developed
Head
is called shutoff head.
•The figure shows that the pump efficiency increases with the increase in
discharge flow, until it reaches optimum value and starts to decrease.
When pumps operate beyond this optimum condition, problems such as
cavitation and hammering starts to occur.
Pump characteristics
Usually manufacturers produces characteristics curves
for the pump with different impeller diameter and
operating speed.
•Discharge is directly proportional to the speed
•Head is proportional to square of speed
•Power input is proportional to the cube of the speed
Where,
Q= discharge liter/sec
H = head in meter
Pi = power input
Pump characteristics
If the pump operates at constant speed but at different
diameter, the effect of discharge, head and power input
becomes
Po = Power developed to
the fluid
EFFICIENCY OF PUMP
Single pump was operated with control rate of flow taken for
0, 10, 15, 30, 30 liters per minute, observed in V notch.
1 0 0 0.6 90 6.11 0
2 8.05 0 0.5 110 5.09 8.313667
3 12.5 0 0.48 118 4.89 11.9805
4 21.42 0 0.38 142 3.87 12.642
5 28 0 0.3 155 3.05 15.94133
PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF CENTRIFUGAL PUMPS
Analysis
Discharge Vs Head
Discharge Vs Head (ideal case)
Head, H
Discharge, Q
Discharge Vs Efficiency
Electric power input vs Flow rate
Hydraulic power vs Flow rate
Single vs Parallel operation
However, the actual flow rate realized in the system is dictated by the intersection of the
system curve with the pump curve. Unless the system curve is variable, the flow
increase may not be that significant.
Single vs Parallel operation (contd…)
When a second pump is introduced, resistance in the system increases as the flow
increases. The flow will increase only to where the system curve intersects the two-pump
curve, as shown in figure.
The amount of flow increase is dictated not only by the system curve, but also by the
steepness of the pump curves. Pumps with flat curves will have less TDH separation than
pumps with steep curves and therefore will have less of a flow rate change.
Single vs Parallel operation (contd…)
Each time an additional fire nozzle is activated, the system resistance is decreased. This
causes the system curve to move to a higher flow on the pump curve, increasing the kW
load on the pump and decreasing the amount of TDH available.
Eventually, another fire pump may need to be activated to maintain the system pressure
as more nozzles come on line.
Unstable Operation
The sketch shows a system curve crossing a pump curve twice. This is an example of
unstable operation. Note that if the first pump is operating at point 'C' when the second
pump is started, the second pump will operate at shut head, delivering no flow as it will
never be able to open the non return valve (required to prevent one pump discharging
through the other when only one pump is operating). If this was to occur, the pump could
eventually explode!
In some cases it may be possible to change the order of starting the pumps, and the
curves can be drawn to check this operation, however if there is any indication of unstable
operation or possibility of one pump being 'over powered' by another, contact us for
assistance.
Analysis