How to maintain flowrate and pressure head in a pump?

In summary, maintaining flow rate and pressure head in a pump involves several key practices: ensuring the pump is correctly sized for the application, regularly inspecting and maintaining the pump and associated systems to prevent leaks and blockages, monitoring the pump's operating conditions to identify and address issues early, adjusting the speed or operational settings as needed, and using proper piping design to minimize resistance and optimize flow. Additionally, employing control systems can help regulate flow and pressure effectively, ensuring efficient and reliable pump performance.
  • #36
Nitheeswar said:
Irrespective of pump output conditions, if we are maintaining pressure 30 m at nozzles, we are getting the 500 lpm, the flowrate only changes if pressure is below 30m
What is the problem with that?
Is the pump satisfying the nozzles or not?

The nameplate of your pump states that it can deliver 14 lps (840 lpm) at a head of 24 m.
If a gauge located at the discharge of the pump shows 32 m of water column (45.5 psi), then it can only deliver less than 840 lpm (let's assume 630 lpm).

In actuality, it will deliver only the amount of water that the nozzles let go through.
The motor will consume less electricity (Amps) and the water may get a little warm.

Water pump.jpg


Please, see how similar pumps behave.
Note the ranges of delivery pressures and volumes.

Copied from:
https://www.crompton.co.in/product/...agricultural-pumps/centrifugal-monoset-pumps/

Water pump 2.jpg


Water pump 3.jpg
 
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  • #37
If we assume it is delivering 630 lpm ,the nozzle can only permit 500 lpm.
What is effect of that 130 lpm?
 
  • #38
Nitheeswar said:
If we assume it is delivering 630 lpm ,the nozzle can only permit 500 lpm.
What is effect of that 130 lpm?
If we assume the pump is delivering 630 lpm, the nozzle are dischaging 630 lpm. You are really hung up on this idea that the nozzels are designed to only output 500 lpm. No one cares what you think the design specs are for your nozzles!

Nozzle: “Hey pump, destroy mass because some engineer miss-designed me!"

Pump: “…”
 
Last edited:
  • #39
Nitheeswar said:
If we assume it is delivering 630 lpm ,the nozzle can only permit 500 lpm.
What is effect of that 130 lpm?
There is no effect, because those 130 lpm are not happening.

Please, take a look at the red curve in the diagram shown in post #4.
Q is the volume of liquid that is delivered by the pump at different pressures.

Note how the pump produces a maximum discharge pressure when Q=0, and it remains close to that value for small amount of flow.
Our pump may be working in a similar flexible area of performance, in which the flow self-adjusts according to the restriction of the nozzles, keeping a maximum discharge pressure.

That is how centrifugal pumps work.
You can fully close the discharge using a gate valve (Q=0 condition), and your gauge will still show the maximum discharge pressure that the pump can produce.

Because the power taken from the motor is proportional to the product of pressure and flow (P x Q), our pump will consume less power in that zero-flow condition.

Your nozzles are acting as a partially open valve, limiting the flow.
Your pump will naturally adjust to that limited flow, increasing the pressure accordingly (which is good for the performance of your nozzles).

All you need to do is to watch the temperature of the water downstream the pump, which tends to increase in those conditions.
If it gets warm, there is no problem.
If it gets too hot, it could damage the seals and the bearings of the pump.

pump-power-throttling-temperature-increase.png

pump-regulation-throttling.png
 
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