Cavitation in Centrifugal Pumps

There may be, on the low-pressure side of the runner, regions in which the pressure falls to values considerably below atmospheric. In a liquid, however, the pressure cannot fall below the vapour pressure at the temperature concerned. If at any point the vapour pressure is reached, the liquid boils and small bubbles of vapour form in large numbers. These bubbles are carried along by the flow, and on reaching a point where the pressure is higher they suddenly collapse as the vapour condenses to liquid again. A cavity results and the surrounding liquid rushes in to fill it. The liquid moving from all directions collides at the centre of the cavity, thus giving rise to very high local pressures (up to 1 GPa). Any solid surface in the vicinity is also subjected to these intense pressures, because, even if the cavities are not actually at the solid surface, the pressures are propagated from the cavities by pressure waves similar to those encountered in water hammer. This alternate formation and collapse of vapour bubbles may be repeated with a frequency of many thousand times a second. The intense pressures, even though acting for only a very brief time over a tiny area, can cause severe damage to the surface. The material ultimately fails by fatigue, aided perhaps by corrosion, and so the surface becomes badly scored and pitted. Parts of the surface may even be torn completely away. Associated with cavitating flow there may be considerable vibration and noise; when cavitation occurs in a turbine or pump it may sound as though gravel were passing through the machine. Not only is cavitation destructive: the larger pockets of vapour may so disturb the flow that the efficiency of a machine is impaired. Everything possible should therefore be done to eliminate cavitation in fluid machinery, that is, to ensure that at every point the pressure of the liquid is above the vapour pressure. When the liquid has air in solution this is released as the pressure falls and so air cavitation also occurs. Although air cavitation is less damaging than vapour cavitation to surfaces, it has a similar effect on the efficiency of the machine. Since cavitation begins when the pressure reaches too low a value, it is likely to occur at points where the velocity or the elevation is high, and particularly at those where high velocity and high elevation are combined. Cavitation is likely to occur on the inlet side of a pump particularly if the pump is situated at a level well above the surface of the liquid in the supply reservoir. For the sake of good efficiency and the prevention of damage to the impeller, cavitation should be avoided.

Applying the energy equation between the surface of liquid in the supply reservoir and the entry to the impeller (where the pressure is a minimum) we have, for steady conditions

p0 / g + z1 - hf = pmin / g + v12 /2g

where
y

v1 is the fluid velocity at the point where the static pressure has its least value

pmin is the minimum static pressure

z1 the elevation of the surface of the liquid in the reservoir above this point where the static pressure has its least value

p0 the absolute pressure at that surface

p0 = pgauge + patm
y

is the density of the fluid at its operating temperature

y

hf is the head loss due to friction in the suction line, care must be taken to include the effect of all devices such as strainers and valves in the suction line.

Re-arranging the above equation gives

pmin / g = p0 / g - hf - v12 /2g + z1

For cavitation not to occur

pmin>pv
where pv is the vapour pressure of the liquid. These equations can be rearranged to give the criterion for no cavitation in the pump suction line.

p0 / g - pv / g - hf - v12 /2g + z1> 0

A parameter called Nett Positive Suction Head (NPSH) is defined as

NSPHa = p0 / g - pv / g - hf + z1
The NPSH available at the inlet flange of the pump can be calculated from the above equation. The pump curves in the pump catalog generally give the NPSH required at each volume flow the pump is required to do. For good pump operation

NPSHavailable>NPSHrequired

Discharge pressure rise in centrifugal pumps running in parallel?

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Any discharge piping system down stream of a pump will have a pressure drop that varies with flow. You can develop a curve of this pressure where flow rate is plotted against pressure drop. Any centrifugal pump will have a performance curve. The lower the discharge head (pressure) the more the pump will pump. The higher the head the less the pump will pump.

Assuming there are two centrifugal pumps running parallel then their performance will balance with the system pressure drop curve to seek a point on each pump's operating curve that matches the overall system pressure drop curve. In case it is not obvious. Two pumps in parallel will not pump twice as much as one pump. The increased flow will raise the discharge pressure on both pumps and they will therefore pump somewhat less.

Oil is correct, you already have characteristic of the system pressure drop. One centrifugal pump has its own charateristic, if it running pararel with the same pump, then the characteristic will change. For the same pressure, the volumetric flow rate will increase twice, then you will have a new point by adding total pressure drop curve. In may opinion, at this condition, pressure rise will not affected significantly, perhaps not more than 20%, although it depends on the charateristic of the pumps.

Parallel Pumping (Part One): Parallel and Not So Parallel

Suppose, for a moment, that you are lounging on a beach somewhere in the vicinity of the equator. If you were to draw side by side two lines in the sand, both heading due north, they will appear parallel. Although our brains will see them as parallel, they are not andif extended will eventually intersect at the magnetic North Pole. Often pumps operating in parallel can fool us into thinking that the expected flow will be much greater than the actual flow. The general rules that describe the head and flow of two identical, centrifugal pumps operating in series or parallel are simple. When operating in series, flow remains the same as a single pump, but head is doubled at each flow point. In parallel operation, head remains the same as a single pump, but flow is doubled at each head point. Figure 1 below illustrates these rules. The blue

curve is the one produced by a single pump while the green and red curves result from series and

parallel operation. It would be nice if predicting parallel pump flow could always be this simple, but in reality, the system conditions dictate the maximum rate of flow. For example, a typical sewage lift station illustrates the importance of evaluating pump performance against the actual system curve.

Figure 2 above shows the performance of two identical wastewater pumps operating in a simplex and duplex (parallel) environment. The black system curve is composed of a static head of 47-ft and the friction head produced by 300-ft of 6-in steel pipe. Valves and fittings increase the

equivalent pipe length to 381-ft. The black marker on the curve represents the simplex design flow of 600-gpm, and it intersects the single pump, H/Q curve at 65-ft. As flow increases so does the system head, and the system curve crosses the duplex H/Q curve at approximately 79-ft. The result is a maximum duplex or parallel flow of about 800-gpm, not the doubling some of us may have expected. (It should also be noted that each pump is operating at 400-gpm, which is 25 percent below BEP. We will address this in detail next month.) An 800-gpm peak flow may be adequate in some cases, but if not, the conditions that influence the system curve will have to change. Figure 3 below shows the same application with a couple of system changes. The discharge pipeline size has been increased to 8-in, and the pump impellers have undergone a small trim that allows them to meet the new design point head. The result is a system that performs quite a bit differently than the previous one.

Although the static head remains the same, the friction head is reduced substantially due to the increased pipe diameter. The original simplex design flow requires just 52-ft while duplex operation requires 60-ft. The result is a duplex flow of 1000-gpm or an increase of 200-gpm above that of the previous example. Additionally, the decreased friction reduces the power required at design flow from approximately 14-hp (6-in pipe) to 11-hp. Under duplex operation, the 24-hp required to produce 800-gpm in Figure 2 is reduced to just 22-hp at 1000-gpm. Some duplex lift stations are not designed to accommodate parallel operation. Instead, the pumps are sized to meet maximum in-flow with a single pump. In these designs, the purpose of a duplex system is simply to extend pump life through alternation and provide back up in the case of a pump failure. Others are designed for parallel operation, but maximum flow can vary substantially. In some cases, the as built system will differ from the original design. I have seen this many times in subdivision wastewater stations (and also in the domestic water and circulation piping in commercial buildings). Often, these field changes are not communicated to the design engineer and the original drawings are seldom updated. These changes can affect both parallel operation and the ability of a single pump to meet its design flow.

In addition to the influence of the system curve, there are several other important conditions that should be considered when operating pumps in parallel. These include use of non-identical pumps, stable versus non- stable H/Q curves and various methods of VFD control. Next month we will take a detailed look at these topics and show how they can affect both constant pressure and lift station applications. The Excel spreadsheets that produced Figures 1 to 3 are available for download on my website. Look for Series-Parallel Pumping Calculator and Simplex-Duplex System Curve Analyzer. The first one allows you to compare identical or non-identical pumps, operating in series or parallel, to a simple system curve. The latter allows comparison of simplex and duplex lift station pumps to the more complex system curves produced by a combination of vertical lift, force main pressure and friction. Joe Evans is the western regional manager for Hydromatic Engineered Waste Water Systems, a division of Pentair Water, 740 East 9th Street, Ashland, OH 44805. He can be reached via his website at www.pumped101.com. Tags: Centrifugal Pumps , March 2008 Issue