A Step-by-Step Approach to Pump Selection

Consider pipe sizing and motor power requirements before picking your
pump.
by Lev Nelik
Pumping Machinery LLC, P&S Editorial Advisory Board
09/17/2018

Unless a brand new plant is being designed, users decide to replace a pump because of its age
and wear or persistent reliability issues.

Plant engineers typically spend their time with the process to make sure machinery is working,
water is owing, power is produced, lights are up and no environmental problems are developing.
They are not, as a rule, experts on any particular type of machinery.

They are basically generalists, having learned to rely on quali ed suppliers, who are experts
within their particular niche (pumps, centrifuges, boilers, generators, etc.). When a pump fails, it is
usually replaced with a new one, without much analysis or discussion. If it continues to fail
frequently, a new supplier is approached for a better, more reliable pump.

Occasionally, a relatively minor modi cation to the process, like an addition of a cooling (or
heating) piping loop, for example, is needed. It may not be a particularly complex system, and
hiring major design contractors may not be economical for such a small project. Yet, it might still
be beyond the expertise of the plant engineers, maintenance and operating personnel. /
So, how is a pumping system, simple or complex, actually designed? Details of pump
performance curves, types, pressure, power or e ciency are usually not on the horizon at this
initial stage.

All the plant knows is their requirements. Maybe they want to pump 1,000 gallons per minute
(gpm) from a cold water tank 2 miles away to a heat exchanger and return the water to the tank.
Thus, the details of the pump will start to emerge.

1. Before talking about a pump, consider the pipe.

Velocity of liquid in pipes ranges between 3 to 10 feet per second (ft/sec). If the velocity is too
slow, the dirt, sludge or other contaminants can settle. If ow is too fast, abrasive wear will reduce
the life of the pipe. Plant designers are familiar with the speci c concerns for each application. A
sludge stream will have a larger pipe than a clean water application. But for a “nonexpert,” a good
starting point could be, say, 5 ft/sec. Solving for pipe diameter (1,000 gpm, 5 ft/sec), we get d =
9.1 inches, so we round it to 10 inches to t available pipe sizes. For now, we will not consider pipe
schedule, wall thickness, etc.

2. Now that we have the pipe, pressure is the next step.

Pressure comes from friction and elevation. We will assume no elevation changes along the pipe
run. Friction losses are determined from a well-known Moody Diagram, from which a friction
coe cient is found and then friction losses (h) are calculated (see Image 1).

/
 Image 1. Moody Diagram to determine friction losses (Images courtesy of the author)

This is the friction loss a pump pressure would need to work against.

The Moody Diagram has lots of helpful information on it: Reynolds number (Re), pipe type/age,
roughness, and thus friction coe cient, as seen on Image 1, may range from 0.01 to 0.1, potentially
an error. Fortunately, some of this can be simpli ed.

/
Re = 5 ft/sec x (10/12) (ft) / 10-6 = 4 x 106 - i.e. turbulent region and, from Image 1, we already cut
down the friction factor to start from at least 0.2. If we reduce this region from the rough pipe and
super smooth pipes, we nd that an average will be around f = 0.03 for an iron pipe of 10 inches
diameter.

3. We now can estimate the power.

See Equation 4. This will likely require a 40-horsepower motor. Note our “bold” assumption of the
e ciency being 70 percent—a rough guess we need to re ne now.

4. Go to the “Pump E ciency

Calculator” program.
Plug the numbers into pump-

/
 Image 2. Pump e ciency calculator results

magazine.com/pump_magazine/pump_magazine.htm (See Image 2). The actual e ciency

predicted by the program is 81.2 percent, better than our estimated 70 percent, and the motor
could be smaller. However, also consider that the pump might “run out” on the curve some times
when the ow is greater. So a slightly higher value on the motor horsepower would be prudent.

5. Re ne the selection.
Now we need to re ne our selection by the pump type, number of stages, speed of the motor
(which may change overall size and e ciency) net positive suction head (NPSH) requirements,
etc. But that is for the next time.

To read more Pumping Prescriptions columns, click here.

Dr. Nelik (aka “Dr. Pump”) is president of Pumping Machinery LLC, an Atlanta-based rm
specializing in pump consulting, training, equipment troubleshooting and pump repairs. Dr. Nelik
has 30 years of experience in pumps and pumping equipment. He may be reached at pump-
magazine.com. For more information, visit
www.pumpingmachinery.com/pump_school/pump_school.htm.

Issue: September 2018

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