PISTON LESS PUMP

Submitted by-:
Satyajeet das

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INTRODUCTION
• Pump is a device which converts mechanical energy into hydraulic
energy.
• Principle: A partial vacuum created when internal parts of pump
receives mechanical energy .
• Oil is forced into pump due to atmospheric pressure on oil and
suction created by pumping element.
• Oil is squeezed b/w pump elements which increases pressure of fluid
and then is forced out of pump and the cycle continues.

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Cont..

• A Piston less pump is a type of pump designed to move fluids without

any moving parts other than three chamber valves.

• This pump provides increased design flexibility & increase

damage and fault tolerance.

• Absence of piston leads to less friction losses& hence improves

efficiency of engine considerably.
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WHY PISTONLESS PUMP?????

• Turbo pumps have a reputation

for being extremely hard to
design to get optimum
performance

• Low efficiency – ONLY 55%

• Weight of pump is high hence

Undesirable to use.
8/24/2016 TURBO PUMP SETUP
TYPICAL Piston less Pump 4
 NECESSITY
• The turbo pumps used in rocket are very heavy, containing many rotating
parts by which there are more frictional losses which more consumption of
fuel there by decreasing the efficiency of the engine .
• since the rocket has to remain stable in the space, is difficult and require
complex methods for it. If this pump gets any fault then its reappearance
requires long time. So, there must be such a device which overcomes all the
drawbacks of the turbo pump.

• The Piston less pump is the solution for the problems faced by using turbo
pumps.

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TURBO & PISTONLESS
PUMP
TURBO
PUMP

Piston
Less
PUMP
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DUAL PISTONLESS PUMP

 NASA has designed, built and tested

a simple, light weight pump (dual
piston less pump) for use in liquid
propelled rocket where a reliable
pump with minimal moving parts is
needed.
 This pump has the potential to
reduce the cost and increase the
reliability of rocket fuel pumps by a
factor of 20 to 100.
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WORKING MODEL OF
ROCKET FUEL PUMP
• The pump shown is equipped with
electronic level sensors and air
cylinder actuated ball valves. The
pump works as predicted and it will
be easy to reconfigure it to pump LOX
and jet fuel.
• This type of pump will make rocket
propulsion systems much more
reliable and less expensive than that
of the turbo jet pump.

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 WORKING OF PISTONLESS
PUMP (Rocket engine)
 It consists of main tank and Two pumping
chambers . The pump starts with both
chambers filled.

 Each one being alternately refilled and

pressurized .

One chamber is pressurized, and fluid is

delivered to the rocket engine from that
chamber(Step 1).
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 Once the level gets low in one
chamber, the other chamber is
pressurized;

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 Flow is thereby established from
both sides during a short
period until full flow is
established from the other
chamber. Then the nearly
empty chamber is vented and
refilled.

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 Finally the cycle
repeats. This results in
steady flow and
pressure. The pump is
powered by
pressurized gas which
acts directly on the
fluid

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FLOW AND PRESSURE DATA FOR ROCKET
FUEL PUMP

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 TALK FLOW
1. INTRODUCTION.
2. NECESSITY.
3. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TURBO AND PISTONLESS PUMP.
4. DUAL PISTONLESS PUMP.
5. WORKING PRINCIPLE.
6. FLOW AND PRESSURE GRAPH.
7. APPLICATIONS.
8. ADVANTAGES.
9. DISADVANTAGES.
10. FUTURE APPLICATIONS.
11. CONCLUSION.
12. REFERENCE.

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APPLICATIONS
• DEEP SPACE PROPULSION - NASA has a need for high Power
propulsion to land and spacecraft on the moons of Jupiter and
beyond. This pump would allow these missions to go forward due to
lower weight of the fuel tanks.

• X PRIZE VEHICLE FUEL PUMP APPLICATION- For X-prize competitors, a

the fuel pump will reduce the cost.

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ADVANTAGES
• All the hardware in the pump consists of pressure vessel so the weight is
low.
• The pump can be scaled up or down with similar performance and
minimal redesign issues.
• Low risk development; pump technology has been demonstrated and
prototypes have been built and tested.
• The manufacturing tolerances need not be tight.
• Less moving parts , hence lubrication required is quite low.
• Design is simple compared to turbo pumps.
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DISADVANTAGES
• They cannot pump to higher pressure than drive gas (area ratio is 1:1)
• They cannot use either a staged combustion or expander cycle.
• A gas generator cycle is also difficult to integrate with the piston
less pump.
• The generated gas must be chemically compatible with both the
propellants.
• This gas generator lowers the Ignition start period of the engine.

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FUTURE APPLICATION

• Static test and fly pump

in student rocket with
Flometric’s rocket
technology.
• Along with latest low
cost engine designs,
pump will make lunch
systems more safe,
reliable and affordable

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CONCLUSION
• The most significance of property of Piston less pump that makes
them different from that of turbo pump ,is the absence of piston.
• This is the most unique technique. In this ,no. of rotating parts is very
less as compared to that of turbo pump. Also, it’s installation is very
easy. and moreover, it is light weight than turbo pump. So, it has less
losses and improves, rather increases efficiency of engine. Also, it is
much economical than turbo pump.

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REFERENCE
• Harrington, S. Piston less Dual Chamber Rocket Fuel Pump: Testing
and Performance” AIAA 2003-4479., Joint Propulsion Conference,
Huntsville, AL, 20-23 July 2003.
• Harrington, S. Launch Vehicle and Spacecraft System Design Using the
Piston less Pump Steve Harrington AIAA 2004-6130 AIAA Space 2004.

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 THANK YOU

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 ANY QUERIES

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