Centrifugal Pump Lab Report

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Pump Characteristics INTRODUCTION

In industry, the performance specifications for a particular pump may be known, but the tests are usually based on water as the pumping medium. For liquids of significantly higher viscosity than water, these performance curves may only be accurate at certain flow rates, or they might not be valid at all, and it might be necessary to recalibrate the specifications for higher viscosity liquids.

The purpose of this experiment is to examine the performance and characteristics of a centrifugal pump, its motor, and the corresponding piping system, used to pump an ethylene glycol solution. The pump used in this experiment has a performance curve based on water, so pump performance curves, as well …show more content…

In order to study the characteristics, the performance of the pump and the motor are studied. The performance of the pump can be determined by capacity, total head loss, brake horsepower, efficiency, liquid horsepower, pump efficiency, and net positive suction head.

The capacity is the rate at which the liquid (ethylene glycol) flows through the pump and is expressed in gallons per minute. The capacity affects other parameters of the pump’s performance. The capacity is chosen such that the efficiency of the pump is high.

The total head is the pressure available out of the pump that result from the change in the mechanical input energy into kinetic and potential energy, i.e. the energy that the pump transfers to the liquid. On the pump curve, the total head is the difference between the discharge head and the suction head. The total head for a liquid is dependent on rotation speed and capacity. Thus, the total head for is independent of the fluid that is being pumped and is constant for different fluid under the same capacity and rotational speed. The total head, as seen in Figure 2, decreases as the capacity …show more content…

The friction head loss is the energy dissipated in the system - the higher the head loss, the higher the friction factor. The velocity of the liquid also effects the friction factor as they are inversely proportional. Bibliography:

Al-Dahhan, Muthanna. ChE 374 Laboratory Manual: Experiments in Heat-Mass-
Momentum Transport. Washington University, 1997.

Baker, Donald, and Shryock, Howark. Journal of Heat Transfer. “A comprehensive approach to the analysis of cooling tower performance.” August, 1961

Hensley, J.C., ed. Cooling Tower Fundamentals. The Marley Cooling Tower Co. 1982.

McCabe, W.L., Smith, J.C., and Harriott, P. Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering.
5th edition. McGraw-Hill, 1993.

Perry, R., Green, D., and Maloney, J. Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook. 6th edition. McGraw-Hill, 1984.

Smith, J.M., and Van Ness, H.C. Introduction to Chemical Engineering
Thermodynamics. 4th edition. McGraw-Hill, 1987.

Welty, James R., Wicks, Charles E., and Wilson, Robert E. Fundamentals of Momentum,
Heat, and Mass Transfer. 3rd edition. John Wiley & Sons,

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