Experimental Investigation of Centrifugal Pump Characteristics

Abstract

The pumps are divided into two main groups as positive displacement namely volumetric pumps and dynamic i.e. centrifugal pumps. Volumetric pumps are generally used to transport hydraulic oils, while centrifugal pumps are used to transport clean or dirty water. Pumps are the tools that are used to move liquid fluids from one place to another in many areas like as cars, industry, construction sites, agriculture, and homes. Therefore, determination of the hydraulic pump’s characteristics under various working conditions, including manometric head, overall efficiency, specific speed, and net positive suction head, is crucial for development, operational limitations, and durability. Experimental investigation is a more realistic method, although it is possible to determine the hydraulic pump characteristics by means of mathematical methods. Therefore, an experimental investigation is performed for the determination of the centrifugal pump characteristics in this study by using an experimental setup. The findings indicate that the hydraulic power given to the water and the electrical power used by the pump both increase up to a particular flow rate and then decline. Additionally, it is found that manometric head of the pump falls even as the overall flow losses rise as the flow rate rises. On the other hand, overall efficiency of the pump enhances at the specific flow rate and then it reduces with the increased flow rate while specific speed of the pump varies about linearly. Moreover, it is finally noticed that the tested centrifugal pump works in cavitations at all flow rates.