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Development and Performance Evaluation of an Axial Flow Pump

M A Hossain
Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Gazipur

M A Hoque
Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Gazipur

M S Miah
Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Gazipur

M S Hassan
Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Gazipur

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

An axial flow pump was designed and fabricated at Farm Machinery and Post harvest Process Engineering Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur during 2012-13. The pump was modified to improve its performance during 2013-14. The pump was tested at the vertical lift of 1.2 m, 2.0 m, 3.0 m and 4.0 m and at the pump speed of 1200, 1300 and 1400 rpm. The discharge and fuel consumption increased with the pump speed. But discharge decreased and fuel consumption increased with the lift. The highest discharge (51.52 L/s) was obtained at the lift of 1.2 m and pump speed of 1407 rpm. The lowest discharge (24.65 L/s) was obtained at the lift of 4.0 m and pump speed of 1296 rpm. The pump could not be operated above the speed of 1500 rpm due to the overload of the 12.5 hp engine. Water power increased with the increase of pump head as well as pump speed. During the test, there were some problems identified such as improper shaft alignment, narrow impeller housing, packing leakage etc. This experiment will be continued to the next year for improvement of the pump for its better performance.

Keywords: Axial flow pump, Fabricated, Fuel consumption

Location: Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering Division of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Joydebpur, Gazipur

Start Date: 00-00-2012

End Date: 00-00-2013

Program Area: Farm Mechanization

Commodity: Pump

Objectives:

a) Designing and fabrication of an axial flow pump for surface water irrigation, (b) Determination of optimum power, pump speed, discharge, fuel consumption and cost of irrigation by axial flow pump.

Methodology:

An axial flow pump was designed and fabricated at the workshop of the Farm Machinery and Post harvest Process Engineering Division of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Joydebpur, Gazipur during 2012-13. The pump was fabricated with MS pipe, MS solid shaft, MS rod, MS sheet, bearing, MS pulley, and necessary spares. The functional parts of the pump were delivery pipe (150 mm diameter), impeller, impeller housing, rotating shaft (25 mm diameter), MS pulley (76 mm), bearing etc. Impeller was the main part of an axial flow pump. An impeller was designed suitable for 150 mm diameter axial flow pump. As per design, the impeller of the axial flow pump was fabricated in the workshop of Farm Machinery and Post harvest Process Engineering Division. The numbers of vanes were three. A 150 mm diameter and 4.50 m long steel pipe was used for delivery of water. The impeller was assembled in the 200 mm house of 150 mm diameter pipe. A 25 mm solid metal shaft was inserted in the pipe. The impeller was fixed one end of the shaft and in another end 127 mm pulley was attached for power transmission. Last year (2012-13), there were some problems in operation of the pump. More power required in operation of the pump, less discharge was found and sometimes backflow of water was observed. This year (2013-14), the impeller was redesigned to eliminate these problems. The numbers of impeller vanes were increased to four. The diameter of impeller casing was increased from 208 to 215 mm. The clearance between impeller and casing was made 1.5 mm. Other dimensions and configurations were remained same as before. The axial flow pump was tested in the pump test bed of Farm Machinery and Post harvest Process Engineering Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur in the month of March 2014. The pump was used for lifting surface water. The pump was tested with 12.5 hp diesel engine (model S195N, Changchai Co. Ltd., Changzou, China). Power was transmitted by 127 mm (5 inches) diameter pulley and V belt (B60, Busan, Korea). Both the engine and pump pulley was the same size (127 mm diameter). The pump was tested at 1.2, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 m vertical lifts. At each of the lift, the pump was tested three speeds such as low (1200 rpm), medium (1300 rpm) and high (1400 rpm). Operation of pump in each of the speed was replicated three times. Fuel consumption of engine in each of the speed was determined after operation of the pump for one hour duration. Fuel consumption was measured by refilling the engine in full content. The discharge of water in each of the replication was determined by volumetric method. The time to fill the graduated water tank was recorded, and discharge was determined by dividing water volume by time requirement.

WP=Qphg

Where, WP is water power (W), Q is pump discharge (m³/s), is the density of water (1000 kg/m³), h is head (m) and g is acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s²). Then the pump characteristics curves were drawn for discharge and water power at different head and speed of the pump.

Source of Information: Annual Research Report, Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI--2013-14

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Discharge of axial flow pump at different lifts and pump speeds are varied from 1250-1550 rpm. During the test, pump speed varied by changing engine speed. Discharge of axial flow pump increased with the pump speed and decreased with the lift. The highest discharge (51.52 L/s) was found at the pump speed of 1407 rpm and for the lift of 1.2 m. The pump was operated up to the lift of 4.0 m. At this lift (4.0 m), 27.37 L/s discharge was obtained at the higher pump speed (1401 rpm). Fuel consumption of axial flow pump at different lifts and pump speeds are shown in Fig. 4. Fuel consumption increased linearly with the pump speed as well as lift. This was due to that at higher lift and pump speed more power was required to operate the pump. Discharges decreased with the increase of head but increased with the pump speed. On the other hand, water power of pump increased with both the head and pump speed. It can be noted from the findings that if the pump is operated at the highest speed (1400 rpm), the highest discharge will be obtained with the highest water power. During the test, there were some problems identified such as improper shaft alignment, narrow impeller housing, packing leakage etc. These problems may be eliminated in the next year.

The discharge and fuel consumption of axial flow pump increased with the pump speed. But discharge decreased and fuel consumption increased with the lift. The highest discharge (51.52 L/s) was obtained at the lift of 1.2 m and pump speed of 1500 rpm. The lowest discharge (24.65 L/s) was obtained at the lift of 4.0 m and pump speed of 1296 rpm. The pump could not be operated above the speed of 1500 rpm due to the overload of the 12.5 hp engine. Water power increased with the increase of pump head as well as pump speed. During the test, there were some problems identified such as improper shaft alignment, narrow impeller housing, packing leakage etc. These problems may be eliminated in the next year.

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings