Qassim University ‫جامعة القصيم‬

College of Engineering ‫كلية الهندسة‬

Mechanical Engineering Department ‫قسم الهندسة الميكانيكية‬

Thermo-fluid Laboratory-I
ME 383
Semester 432
Lab Report # 2
Performance of single centrifugal pump

Submitted by
Total
Reason for Points points
# Name ID deduction deducted (out of
100)

1 Khalid Al-Shammari 391108051

2 Abdulaziz Al-Najidy 391110216

3 Azzam Al-Qadhi 391108013

4 Mousab Al-Khalifa 372120178

Key: B: Behavior U: Unprepared Q: Quality D: Discussion

Submitted to: Dr. Hesham Othman

Overall Achievement %
SO#3 SO#6
Submitted date: 02/17/2022 3.1 6.1 6.2 6.3
List of Contents

Abstract ..........................................................................................................................4
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................4
2. Method and Equipment ..............................................................................................5
3. Experiment procedure ................................................................................................6
4. Results and Discussion ..............................................................................................7
4-1. Theoretical equations ..........................................................................................7
4-2. Results .................................................................................................................8
4-3. Discussion .........................................................................................................12
5. Conclusion ...............................................................................................................12
6. References ................................................................................................................13

2
List of figures
Figure 1: Gunt centrifugal pump system module ..........................................................5
Figure 2: Gunt centrifugal pump set up .........................................................................6
Figure 3: Delivery head versus volume flow rate for different rpm............................10
Figure 4: Hydraulic output power versus volume flow rate for different rpm ............10
Figure 5: Electric power versus volume flow rate for different rpm...........................11
Figure 6: Pump efficiency versus volume flow rate for different rpm ........................11

List of tables
Table 1: measurement taken from single centrifugal pump at 1500 rpm ......................8
Table 2: measurement taken from single centrifugal pump at 2000 rpm ......................8
Table 3: measurement taken from single centrifugal pump at 2500 rpm ......................9
Table 4: measurement taken from single centrifugal pump at 3000 rpm ......................9

3
Abstract

The main goals of this experiment are:

1-Becoming familiar with centrifugal pumps and their operation principle
2-Studing and knowing the effect of pump speed on head, flow rate and efficiency.
3-Drawing the head, power and efficiency characteristic curves for the centrifugal
pump.

1. Introduction

Centrifugal pumps are probably among the most often applied machinery in
industrial installation as well as in common life. Centrifugal pumps have been
increasingly utilized for various purposes, such as irrigation, water supply, steam
power plants, oil refineries, air conditioning systems. Therefore, the petroleum
industry and power plants use a lot of centrifugal pumps. When the pump operates,
there will be friction between the fluid and the pipe caused by viscosity. Friction will
convert some of the pressure energy of the fluid flow into heat and result in energy
loss. A portion of that energy is lost due to the resistance to flow. This resistance to
flow is called head loss due to friction. Friction between the pipe wall and the fluid
tries to slow down the fluid unless to get an assistance from gravity or naturally
occurring pressure, generally have to install pumps or compressors to counter the
friction [1].
In this experiment, the team members will turn on the centrifugal pump in several
revolutions per minute then the pressures will be calculated at higher flow rate then
will decrease it slowly to take different readings then graphs will be plotted to show
the difference that the speed makes in the centrifugal pump.

4
2. Method and Equipment

Valve at output Flow motor Motor

Water tank
Pressure sensor
at output

Temperature
sensor Pump

pressure sensor
at inlet
Valve at inlet

Figure 1:Gunt centrifugal pump system module

5
 Figure 2: Gunt centrifugal pump set up

3. Experiment procedure

1. Turn the main switch to 1

2. Turn on PC and launch program for measurement data acquisition
3. Press “Tare” button to calibrate to zero
4. Turn on the pump via the program
5. Check that each component is functioning correctly.
6. Open valve 2 fully
7. Run the pump at 1500 1/min.
8. Record the values of p1 , p2, Phyd , Pel , efficiency (η ) and the volume flow rate
(V̇)
9. Reduce the volume flow rate and take the measurements according to the
previous point (8)
10.To obtain additional curves you can follow the previous steps for other
rotational speed ( 2000 1/min , 2500 1/min, 3000 1/min)

6
4. Results and Discussion

4-1. Theoretical equations

To determine the hydraulic pump output power the following relation should use:
Phyd= V̇ .H .g . ρ (eq.1)
Where:
Phyd: Hydraulic pump output power (W)
V̇: Volume flow rate (m3/s)
H: pump delivery head (m)
g: gravitational acceleration (9.81 m/s2)
ρ: water density (kg/m3)

To obtain pump delivery head the following equation is used:

(𝑝𝑑 −𝑝𝑠 ) (𝑉𝑑 2 −𝑉𝑠 2 )
H=[ ]+𝑍+[ ] (eq.2)
𝜌. 𝑔 2𝑔

Where:
pd: outlet pressure (Pa)
ps: inlet pressure (Pa)
Z: height difference between two pressure probes (0.15 m)
Vd: outlet velocity (m/s)
Vs: inlet velocity (m/s)
“Vd and Vs will cancel each other because the cross suctional area of the section and
pressure connections are the same”

For determining the pump efficiency, the following equitation is used:

𝑃ℎ𝑦𝑑
ηp = (eq.3)
𝑃𝑒𝑙

Where:
ηp: pump efficiency
Pel :electric power supplied to the motor that drives the pump (W)

7
 4-2. Results

Table 1 shows the data that have been taken from single centrifugal pump at 1500
rpm, the data contains volume flow rate, inlet and outlet pressure, electric power,
pump efficiency, pump hydarlic taken from the sensior and theoritcal using (eq.1),
and delivery head which was calculated using (eq.2).

Table 1: measurement taken from single centrifugal pump at 1500 rpm

Rotational speed (rpm) 1500

Pump Theory
Volume Inlet Outlet Electirc Pump Delivery
hydraulic hydulic
Run flow rate pressure pressure power efficiency head
power power
(V̇,m3/s) (Ps , Pa) (Pd , Pa) (Pel ,W) (η ) (H,m)
(Phyd ,W) (Phyd ,W)
1 6.67×10-5 0 25000 85 2% 2 2 2.71
2 1.33×10-4 -1000 21000 85 3% 3 3 2.4
3 2.33×10-4 -2000 13000 88 4% 4 4 1.68
4 3.13×10-4 -4000 3000 90 2% 2 3 0.87

Tables 2, 3 and 4 shows the same data taken in table 1 but when pump rotational
speed changed (2000, 2500, 3000) rpm.

Table 2: measurement taken from single centrifugal pump at 2000 rpm

Rotational speed (rpm) 2000

Pump Theory
Volume Inlet Outlet Electirc Pump Delivery
hydraulic hydulic
Run flow rate pressure pressure power efficiency head
power power
(V̇,m3/s) (Ps , Pa) (Pd , Pa) (Pel ,W) (η ) (H,m)
(Phyd ,W) (Phyd ,W)
1 6.83×10-5 0 46000 124 3% 3 3 4.85
2 1.83×10-4 -2000 38000 129 6% 8 8 4.24
3 2.7×10-4 -3000 27000 132 6% 8 8 3.22
4 3.38×10-4 -5000 18000 140 5% 8 8 2.50
5 4.83×10-4 -7000 5000 138 4% 5 7 1.38

8
 Table 3: measurement taken from single centrifugal pump at 2500 rpm

Rotational speed (rpm) 2500

Pump Theory
Volume Inlet Outlet Electirc Pump Delivery
hydraulic hydulic
Run flow rate pressure pressure power efficiency head
power power
(V̇,m3/s) (Ps , Pa) (Pd , Pa) (Pel ,W) (η ) (H,m)
(Phyd ,W) (Phyd ,W)
1 1.67×10-4 -1000 67000 178 6% 10 12 7.1
2 3.35×10-4 -5000 45000 188 9% 17 17 5.26
3 5×10-4 -10000 10000 194 5% 11 11 2.19
4 6.25×10-4 -10000 7000 196 5% 10 12 1.89

Table 4: measurement taken from single centrifugal pump at 3000 rpm

Rotational speed (rpm) 3000

Pump Theory
Volume Inlet Outlet Electirc Pump Delivery
hydraulic hydulic
Run flow rate pressure pressure power efficiency head
power power
(V̇,m3/s) (Ps , Pa) (Pd , Pa) (Pel ,W) (η ) (H,m)
(Phyd ,W) (Phyd ,W)
1 2.4×10-4 -3000 93000 245 9% 23 23 9.97
2 3.33×10-4 -5000 78000 262 11% 27 28 8.64
3 5.33×10-4 -11000 36000 252 9% 25 26 4.96
4 7.62×10-4 -15000 9000 245 7% 19 19 2.6

4-3. Discussion
Values are listed in tables above for 4 different rotational speed in order to visualize
them in graphs. However, plenty of things can be noticed in the tables, it can be seen
that the higher the rotational speed, the higher the pump efficiency. Also, we can see
that at all tables the hydraulic power and theoretical hydraulic power are almost the
same which give us an indication of accurate determination of values experimentally.

9
Figure 3 shows the relationship between volume flow rate and pump delivery head
for different measurement of different pump speed.

Figure 3: Delivery head versus volume flow rate for different rpm

Figure 4 shows the relationship between hydraulic pump output power and volume
flow rate for different pump speed.

Figure 4: Hydraulic output power versus volume flow rate for different rpm

10
Figure 5 shows the relationship between electric power supplied and volume flow
rate for different readings of pump speed (rpm).

Figure 5: Electric power versus volume flow rate for different rpm

Figure 6 shows the patterns of pump efficiency of different pump speed for different
readings of volume flow rate.

Figure 6: Pump efficiency versus volume flow rate for different rpm
11
4-4. Discussion
After plotting the values in the graph and visualize them, it can be analyzed by
observations. In Figure 3, it can be seen that the pump delivery head and volume flow
rate are inversely related, the higher the volume flow rate the lower the pump
delivery head. In the case of output power with volume flow rate at figure 4, it
reaches the maximum value which is 27 W at 300 rpm and approximately 0.0003
m^3/s as volume flow rate. On the other hand, in Figure5, we can see the constancy
of electric power at each rotational speed while changing the volume flow rate, which
is understandable since the electric power depends of the rotational speed of the
pump not the flow of the fluid. In Figure 6, the efficiency and volume flow rate are
represented in the graph, we can see the inconstancy the curve shows, however, at
each rotational speed, there is a range for the pump efficiency and can be better seen
from the values in the tables as well.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, one of the most common pump that it used in pumping systems is
centrifugal pump and it converts the energy supplied into kinetic energy then to
potential energy in order to increase the pressure of the liquid flowing through it.

During the experiment, several volume flow rate values have been taken at a specific
rotational speeds in order to study the effect of these values in the inlet and outlet
pressers, electric, hydraulic powers , the efficiency and the delivery head of the
centrifugal pump as its been illustrated in [Table1,2,3and Table4].

12
After the team members obtained an experiment using centrifugal pump and
extracting the data, it's been determined that as the rotational speed of the centrifugal
pump increase the pump efficiency increases as well. Also, after the team members
analyzed Figure3, it's been observed that the pump delivery head and the volume
flow rate are inversely related. Also, after analyzing Figure5, it's been observed that
the electric power is approximately constant as the volume flow rate changes which
is due to the dependency of electrical power on the rotational speed rather than the
volume flow rate of the fluid.

6. References
1- Patel DA, Chaudhari VN and Patel DR 2019 IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil16(2) 63-
68February 2022.
2- Qassim University, Faculty of Engineering, Course: Fluid & Thermo Lab, Performance
of centrifugal pumps Hand out, February2022.

13