2012

Vemco,Inc.

[CALCULATINGSYSTEMCURVE]
Advanced Analysis of Pumping Systems Requires and Understanding of "System Curve"

Calculating System Curve

Inordertoanalyzemanypumpingsystems,athoroughunderstandingof"SystemCurve"isrequired. Understandingvariablespeedsystems,parallelpumpsystems,andseriespumpsystemsallrelyon understandingthesystemcurve.Also,predictingtheenergyusageofapumpwithdifferentdiameter impellersreliesonanunderstandingofsystemcurve.Keystounderstandingthesystemcurveare:
1. Eachpipingsystemhasauniqueperformancecurvecalleditssystemcurve. 2. Thesystemcurvedefinestherelationshipbetweenflowquantitythroughthesystemandthetotal resistancethatthesystemofferstoflow.UnitsmostoftenusedintheEnglishsystemareGPMfor flowand"feet"fortotalresistancewhereGPMisshortforgallonsperminuteand"feet"isshortfor feetofhead. 3. Thesystemcurveiscompletelyindependentofanypumpcurve.Onecouldinstallanypumpina givenpipingsystem,andthesystemcurvewouldnotchange. 4. Thesystemcurveisparabolicshaped.Itcanbecompletelydefinedandplottediftwooperating pointsareknown. 5. Whenapumpisinstalledandoperatedinasystem,thepointofoperation(expressedinflowand head)willbeatasinglepointwherethepumpcurveandthesystemcurveintersect.Thisislogical, becausethesystemmustoperateonitscurve,andthepumpmustoperateonitscurve,sothepoint ofoperationofaninstalledpumpmustbecommontobothcurves. 6. Whenwe"balance"apumpscapacitybythrottlingavalve,weactuallyshiftthesystemcurveby addingorsubtractingresistancetoflow.Thebalancedpointofoperationiswherethepumpcurve and"new"systemcurveintersect.

CalculatetheDesignFlowandHeadasaFirstSteptoDrawtheSystemCurve
Todrawasystemcurve,itisfirstnecessarytocalculatetheresistancetoflowthroughthesystem(the "head")atoneoperatingpoint.Thisisnormallydoneatthedesignflowpoint.Forexample,ifthedesignflow is200GPM,theheadiscalculatedat200GPM.Themethodfordoingsoisbeyondthescopeofthispaper. (ForadiscussionofthistopicgototheToolstaboftheVemco,Incwebsite,andseethearticleentitled, "CalculatingthePumpHead").Anunderstandingofthatarticleisnecessarytounderstanddevelopmentof thesystemcurve.

SystemCurveforClosedSystems
Asdiscussedintheaforementionedarticle,theresistancetoflowforaclosedsystemconsistsonlyoffriction head(alsocalledpressuredrop).Velocityhead,statichead,andpressureheaddonotaffecttheresistanceto flowinaclosedsystem. Itisgenerallyacceptedthattheresistancetoflowvarieswiththesquareofthequantityofflow.Assumethat aflowrateof100GPMresultsinafrictionheadof75ft.inagivensystem.
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Doublingtheflowinthesamesystemto200GPMwouldresultinafrictionheadof:(200 GPM/100GPM)2X75ft.=300ft. Reducingtheflowto80GPMinthesamesystemwouldresultinafrictionheadof: (80GPM/100GPM)2X75ft.=48ft.

Thissquaredrelationshipallowsustoplotacompletesystemcurveveryquicklyoncewehavecalculatedthe designflowanddesignhead.BycompletingTable1,wecanquicklydeterminesixpoints,whichshouldbea

Calculating System Curve

sufficientnumbertoconstructareasonablysmoothcurve.Tousethistable,onemustfirsthavecalculated thedesignflow(DF)andthedesignhead(DH).
Table1,ClosedSystemCurve(FrictionHeadOnly) SystemFlowRate,GPM 1.1XDF DF .75XDF .50XDF .25XDF 0Flow Letslookatanexample: Example1:Assumeadesignflow(DF)of200GPMatadesignhead(DH)of30.0ft.Calculatethesystem curvepoints.Thepointsarecalculatedasfollows: Table2,(ClosedSystem) SystemFlowRate,GPM 1.1XDF=220 DF=200 .75XDF=150 .50XDF=100 .25XDF=50 0Flow0 FrictionHeadFormula 1.21XDH DH=30 0.56XDH 0.25XDH 0.06XDH 0.00XDH FrictionHead,Ft. 36.3 30.0 16.9 7.5 1.8 0.0 FrictionHeadFormula 1.21XDH DH 0.56XDH 0.25XDH 0.06XDH 0.00XDH DH FrictionHead,Ft.

Rememberthatinclosedsystems,thefrictionheadisthetotalheadaswell,sothevaluesintherighthand columnrepresenttheheadsforthesystemcurve.

Calculating System Curve

CalculatingSystemCurvePointsforOpenSystems
Foropensystems,theformulaforthesystemheadis: TotalSystemHead=FrictionHead+StaticHead+PressureHead+VelocityHead Velocityheadappearsinitalicstoremindusthatvelocityheadisgenerallyignored,asitisinsignificantin hydronicapplications(seethearticlecalled,"CalculatingthePumpHead"onthisWEBsiteforamore completeexplanation). Neitherstaticheadnorpressureheadvarywithflow.Thisislogical,becausetheheightofthesystem(static head)remainsfixedregardlessoftheflowrate;thepressuresinthe"beginning"and"final"vesselsare independentofflowrateaswell.Soeachpointconsistsoffrictionheadwhichvarieswithflow,andstaticand pressureheads,whichdonot. Considerthefollowingexample: Aprocesssystemconsistsofanopentank,apressurizedtank,andpipingbetweenthetwo.Apumpdelivers waterfromtheopentanktothepressurizedtank.Thefrictionheadforthepipinghasbeencalculatedat30 ft.at200GPM.Thewaterlevelinthepressurizedtankislocated5abovethelevelintheopentank.The pressurizedtankoperatesat4PSIG.Calculatethepointsforthesystemcurve. Notethatthefrictionheadisexactlythesameasinthepreviousexample,sothereisnoneedtorecalculate that.Theotherheadsare:
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StaticHead=5 PressureHead=(4PSIG0PSIG)X2.31ft./PSIG=9.2ft.

Rememberthatthestaticheadandpressureheadarefixed.Wecanconstructthefollowingtable(Table3). Table3(OpenSystem)

SystemFlow Rate,GPM
220 200 150 100 50 0

Friction Head,Ft. 36.3 30.0 16.9 7.5 1.8 0.0

StaticHead, Ft. 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0

Pressure Head,Ft. 9.2 9.2 9.2 9.2 9.2 9.2

TotalHead, Ft. 50.5 44.2 31.1 21.7 16.0 14.2

Calculating System Curve

ThecurvesfromTable2(foraclosedsystem)andTable3(foranopensystem)havebeenplottedbelowin Figure1.Notethateachcurvedemonstratescharacteristicsofitsparticularsystemtype.
1. Theclosedsystemcurveisparabolashapedandpassesthroughtheorigin(0GPMat0ft) andthroughthedesignpoint(200GPMat30ft.).Allclosedsystemcurvespassthroughthe origininthedesignpoint. 2. TheopensystemcurveisparabolashapedandmeetstheYaxisataheadequaltothesum ofthestaticheadplusthefixedhead.Italsopassesthroughthedesignpoint.Allopen systemcurvesexhibitthesetraits.

Figure1,TypicalSystemCurvesforOpenandClosedSystems Summary Thesystemcurvetellsuslittleinandofitself.However,whencombinedwithpumpcurves,itisanessential elementinpredictingthepointofoperation.Therefore,itisimportanttounderstandhowtoconstruct systemcurvesforbothclosedandopensystems.

Formoreinformation,contactyourlocalVemco,Inc.office. www.vemcoinc.com