Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 6

Centrifugal Pumps

Centrifugal pumps are the most preferred hydraulic


pumps used in domestic and industrial world.

Impeller - The Heart of Centrifugal


Pumps
Centrifugal pumps are used to induce flow or raise
pressure of a liquid. Its working is simple. At the heart of
the system lies impeller. It has a series of curved vanes
fitted inside the shroud plates. The impeller is always
immersed in the water. When the impeller is made to
rotate, it makes the fluid surrounding it also rotate. This
imparts centrifugal force to the water particles, and
water moves radially out. In Fig.1 this process is
illustrated.

Fig.1 The rotating impeller imparts a centrifugal force to the water particles and the water moves radially
out

Since the rotational mechanical energy is transferred to


the fluid, at the discharge side of the impeller, both the
pressure and kinetic energy of the water will rise. At the
suction side, water is getting displaced, so a negative
pressure will be induced at the eye. Such a low pressure
helps to suck fresh water stream into the system again,
and this process continues.

Fig.2 Negative pressure created by displacement of water from the eye helps to suckfresh stream of water

From foregoing discussions it is clear that, the negative


pressure at the eye of the impeller helps to maintain the
flow in the system. If no water is present initially, the
negative pressure developed by the rotating air, at the
eye will be negligibly small to suck fresh stream of water.
As a result the impeller will rotate without sucking and
discharging any water content. So the pump should be
initially filled with water before starting it. This process
is known as priming.
The impeller is fitted inside a casing. As a result the
water moves out will be collected inside it, and will

move in the same direction of rotation of the impeller, to


the discharge nozzle.This is shown in the Fig.3.

Fig.3 Water which leaves the impeller gets collected inside the casing, flow direction is also marked

Use of the Casing


From the illustrations of the pump so far, one speciality
of the casing is clear. It has an increasing area along the
flow direction. Such increasing area will help to
accommodate newly added water stream, and will also
help to reduce the exit flow velocity. Reduction in the
flow velocity will result in increase in the static pressure,
which is required to overcome the resistance of pumping
system.

Impeller Design
As we have discussed earlier impeller is the most vital
part of a centrifugal pump. Successful impellers have
been developed with many years of analysis and
developmental work. Fig.4 shows one of such impeller
with its one shroud plate removed for better view of
vanes.

These vanes are backward curved. Backward curved


vanes have the blade angle less than 90 degree.
Backward curved vanes are the most preferred vane type
in the industry due to its self stabilizing power
consumption characteristics. This means with increase in
flow rate power consumption of the pump stabilizes after
a limit. Forward and radial blades are less common in the
industry. The eye configuration of the impeller shown is
state of the art. This vane is extracted from
a Kirloskar pump model. Such projecting eye section
induces better swirl of flow and guarantees high negative
pressure at the suction.

Fig.4 More details of vanes inside the impeller

NPSH - Overcoming the problem of


Cavitation
If pressure at the suction side of impeller goes below
vapor pressure of the water, a dangerous phenomenon
could happen. Water will start to boil forming vapor
bubbles. These bubbles will move along with the flow
and will break in a high pressure region. Upon breaking
the bubbles will send high impulsive shock waves and
spoil impeller material overtime. This phenomenon is
known as cavitation. More the suction head, lesser should
be the pressure at suction side to lift the water. This fact

puts a limit to the maximum suction head a pump can


have.

Fig.5 Low pressure at the suction side can cause cavitation; More the suction head,lesser is the suction pressure required

However Cavitation can be completely avoided by


careful pump selection. The term NPSH (Net Positive
Suction Head) helps the designer to choose the right
pump which will completely avoid Cavitation. NPSH is
defined as follows.

Where Pv is vapor pressure of water


V is speed of water at suction side
For a given pumping system it will have an NPSH
called 'Available NPSH'. Pump manufacturer will specify
the minimum NPSH required for each pump for its safe
operation, known as 'Required NPSH'. If the pump needs
to work without Cavitation the 'Available NPSH' should be
greater than 'Required NPSH'.

Types of Impeller
The impeller type we have used for the discussion so far
is called as an enclosed type. Here vanes are closed from
both the ends with shroud plates. Other types of impeller
which are used in industry are Semi open and open
impellers. If the working fluid is cloggy in nature it is
preferred to use an open kind of impeller. But they are
slightly less efficient.

Fig.6 Kind of impellers used in centrifugal pumps : Enclosed, Semi-Open and Open

Вам также может понравиться