Reprinted from the September issue of:

0
z
«
THE MAGAZINE FOR PUMP USERS September 1997

Rotary Pump Inlet

Pressure Requirements
Shedding light on one of the least understood yet most important
aspects of a successful pump installation.

By James R. Brennan
 COVER STORY

I I
ill

I
Shedding light on one of the least understood yet
most important aspects of a successful pump installation

ByJamesR. Brennan, Imo I~dustries

I
ncorrectly specifying the re- and units do not, at least initially, 5% FLOW REDUCTION (ROTARY)
quired inlet pressure for a pump intrude on our ability to grasp the 3% HEAD REDUCTION (CENTRIFUGAL)

will result ~n either poor perfor-

mance, nOIse, premature wear,
high operating and maintenance
principles.
Every pump has a minimum
required inlet pressure. What that
PUMP
FLOW
OR
HEAD
t
,.:::?OW REDUCTION (RECIPROCATING)

expenses and failures, or a seemingly minimum pressure is depends on : MINIMUM REQUIRED

excellent installation that costs a pump type, size, speed and the vis-
good deal more than it should. cosity of the fluid pumped. If the VINLET PRESSURE
Rotary pumps handle the broad- minimum required inlet pressure is INLET PRESSURE
est range of liquids of any generic not made available to the inlet side of
pump classification - from molten the pump, cavitation will result. Cav- Figure 1. Hydraulic Institute cavitation
metal, food, liquefied petroleum gas definitions
and sewage to asphalt, fuels, chemi-
cal slurries and plastics, polymers perature. Pseudo-cavitation can
and pharmaceuticals. Capabilities occur if the liquid contains dissolved
and user expectations for rotary gas or air - a not uncommon condi-
pumps are significantly different tion. The dissolved gas will expand
from those of other pump classifica- as the fluid pressure is reduced and
tions. cause exactly the same symptoms as
In the United States, the pure cavitation. Entrained gas or air
Hydraulic Institute is the major con- in the fluid, such as can be found in
trolling organization for pumping some restricted or poorly designed
definitions, and each of the centrifu- lubrication systems, will also cause
gal, rotary and reciprocating pump pumps to exhibit cavitation symp-
manufacturers have its own set of toms, as will an air leak in a pump
similar but not necessarily identical inlet line below atmospheric pres-
standards. Inlet pressure require- sure.
ments for rotary, positive displace- The Hydraulic Institute defines
ment pumps are similar to NPSHr minimum inlet pressure as that pres-
(Net Positive Suction Head Required) sure, for a specified pump and set of
for centrifugal pumps. For rotary operating conditions, that will result
pumps, pressure units are normally itation is the incomplete filling or in a flow loss of 3% for reciprocating
in force per unit area (psi, bar, MPa) feeding of the pumping elements pumps, and 5% for rotary pumps and
rather than elevation difference (feet with liquid. This results in a reduc- a 3% head loss for centrifugal pumps
or meters). tion of flow and, if the condition is while all other operating conditions
The variety of labels used for severe, noise, vibration, instability, are held constant. Most pump manu-
this parameter, as well as an aston- internal erosion and catastrophic fail- facturers accept these fairly arbitrary
ishingly long list of units of measure ure can result. Cavitation must there- definitions as a condition that their
and reference scales, perpetuates fore be avoided. Pure cavitation is pumps will tolerate indefinitely (Fig-
misunderstanding of required inlet the partial vaporization of the ure 1). It is, however, operation in a
pressure. The purpose of this article pumped liquid caused by allowing very mildly cavitated condition. Fig-
is to provide a basic physical under- the fluid pressure to fall below its ure 2 illustrates what is happening to
standing such that the various scales vapor pressure at the pumping tem- the pump above and below this min-
 Rotary Pump InletPressure Requirements

ATMOSPHERIC is used, then the job site altitude

PRESSURE
ON SITE above sea level is an important fac-
tor. Figure 3 illustrates the reduction
in atmospheric pressure with alti-
tude. Higher elevations have less
pressure available for use in pushing
ABSOLUTE fluids into a pump, and this often
SYSTEM overlooked factor can make or break
INLET SIDE
PRESSURE an application. The idea that a pump
PUMP INLET PRESSURE
can "suck, IIwhile seemingly obvious,
is in fact incorrect. The pressure
reduction at the inlet of the pump is
simply the result of frictional pres-
MAXIMUM LIQUID sure loss due to the flow of fluid from
VAPOR PRESSURE
0 its source to the pump and into the
a b d e f
pumping element(s).
LOCATION
RELIEF If fluids always remained in
their liquid state, establishing the
minimum required inlet pressure
would be somewhat simpler. Howev-
er, many liquids exhibit a vapor pres-
sure of sufficient magnitude at
pumping temperature - a factor that
must be taken into consideration for
ATMOSPHERIC
PRESSURE AT proper pump operation (Figure 4).
JOBSITE
ALTITUDE ELEVATION Vapor pressure is the inverse of boil-
DIFFERENCE
ing temperature. As we all learned
MAXIMUM long ago, water boils at 100De
LIQUID
VISCOSITY
AND
VAPOR
L MINIMUM
LIQUID LEVEL
(212DF). This boiling temperature
only correct when the water is at a
pressure of one atmosphere
is

PRESSURE
Figure 2. Factors impacting net inlet pressure available
imum inlet pressure. The lower case
letters in the diagram correspond to
the horizontal axis locations in the
graph. Pump manufacturers have
conducted extensive tests and deter-
mined the empirical equations used
to calculate the required minimum
inlet pressures for their products.
So from where does the required
minimum inlet pressure come? It
comes from either an upstream
pump or atmospheric pressure push-
ing on the free surface of the fluid
20
15
FEET
ABOVE
SEA
LEVEL10
X1000
5 ture.
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE,%
Figure 3. Effects of altitude on atmos-
pheric pressure
(one
international atmosphere is equal to
101,325 Pascals, 1.01325 bar, 1.03323
kg/cm2, 14.696 psi). At an elevation
upstream of a pump in question. of 3000 meters (9842 feet), the atmos-
Atmospheric pressure can be the nat- pheric pressure is only 69% of what
ural pressure exerted by the column it is at sea level. At this reduced pres-
height of air above the pump, or it sure, water will boil at about 90De
can be the artificially maintained (195DF). The inverse way of looking
pressure above the fluid surface, at this is to say that the vapor pres-
such as a deliberately maintained sure of water is 1 atmosphere at
vacuum or pressure in a process ves- 100De (212DF). If you wish to pump
sel. If natural atmospheric pressure water in its liquid state and the water
happens to be at a temperature of
VAPOR PRESSURE- BARA 100De (212DF), the inlet side of the
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 pump must not be exposed to a pres-
I sure below 1 atmosphere or the liq-
130 uid will begin to convert to a gas
6 (steam) and the pump will enter a
-50
120 cavitating region of operation, a very
5 undesirable condition. If liquid water
TEMP. - TEMP. is to be pumped at 160De (320DF),
4 METERS
ABOVE of 110 DC then the inlet side of the pump must
SEA be maintained at or above the 6.1
3 LEVEL -40
X1000 atmospheres that represent the vapor
2 100 pressure of water at this tempera-
Many liquids handled at their
90
-30 normal pumping temperature exhibit
10 15 20 25 30 such a low vapor pressure that this
VAPOR PRESSURE- PSIA factor can be ignored for all practical
purposes. Refined lubricating oils,
Figure 4. Effect of temperature on vapor
for example, at normal operating
pressure

Rotary Pump Inlet Pressure Requirements
Photo 1. High pressure gear pump destroyed
by severe cavitation
temperatures up to 82°C (180°F)
have vapor pressures in the range of
0.01 atmospheres. On the other
hand, volatile liquids such as gaso-
line and alcohol will readily evapo-
rate (boil) at ambient temperatures.
Propane is kept liquid at ambient
temperature only because it is stored
in a pressure vessel. The vessel must
contain the propane's vapor pressure
at the vessel's temperature. Vapor
pressure invariably increases with
temperature. It is this very fact that is
put to use in refining petroleum and
in many other petrochemical and
chemical processes. While it is
almost always important to know a
fluid's minimum vapor pressure at
the maximum pump suction temper-
ature, the pumping of high tempera-
ture fluids should involve a careful
analysis of the possible impacts of
vapor pressure.
Some fluids will exhibit multiple
vapor pressures. Raw crude oil is an
example. This fluid is composed of
many different complex molecules. It
is a mixture and, as such, its compo-
nent fluids will each have its own
vapor pressure. The lowest dis-
cernible component vapor pressure
is the one to use for net inlet pressure
calculations if pumping this fluid.
Alcohol mixed with water will exhib-
it two vapor pressures: that of alco-
hol and a different one for water. The
way to separate these two liquids is
to apply heat. The alcohol will boil
first at a lower temperature than
water's boiling point. The alcohol
can be collected as a gas, then cooled
to its liquid state. This process, called
distillation, is a good example of
vapor pressure at work.
Cavitation causes its damage by
the abrupt, violent compression of
the vapor (gas) back into liquid at the
pump discharge. This compression
I
occurs very rapidly as an dling compressible fluids occurs at
implosion. There is enough the last stage, overloading the unit.
energy to erode minute metal The minimum required inlet
particles from the rotating pressure of a pump also depends
and stationary pumping ele- upon its size and speed. The product
ments. Such erosion is fre- of size and rotational speed is veloci-
quently visible on outboard ty. Fluids moving at high velocities
marine engine propellers in entering the pumping elements will
which the propeller velocity consume more energy (pressure)
exceeds the water velocity, than slower moving fluids. Conse-
thus cavitating the blades. quently, large and/or high speed
Given enough time, a blade pumps will require a higher mini-
failure is inevitable. Photo 1 mum inlet pressure than smaller
shows cavitation damage to a and/or low speed pumps. Fluid vis-
pump. Most rotary positive cosity (fluid resistance to shear) will
displacement pumps use also adversely affect minimum
incremental pressure staging within required inlet pressure. Friction loss-
the pumping elements to withstand es within the pump suction side cas-
differential pressure. Examples of ing (minimal) and friction losses
this staging include multiple wraps entering the first pumping chamber
of screw pump thread, multiple teeth increase with increasing viscosity.
on gear pumps and multiple vanes in Thus, pumps will require higher
vane pumps. This staging is only minimum inlet pressures when han-
effective if the fluid pumped is near- dling higher viscosity fluids. Figure 5
ly incompressible, i.e., a liquid. Intro- shows the effect. Velocities are
duction of gas, air or vapor causes labeled V 1 increasing in magnitude
the fluid's compressibility to to V4. One solution to the high
increase, and this compressibility required minimum inlet pressure is
defeats the staging benefits. Most of to use a larger pump operating at a
the pressure rise across a pump han- lower speed to reduce the internal
velocity.
The price paid is, of course, a larger,
w
a: more expensive pump and a more
::J
en
en
expensive driver.
w
a: Getting the inlet side of the
c.
I- pump correctly specified, and pro-
w
...J viding as much net inlet pressure as
~
C possible, will result in an optimally
w
a: sized, minimum cost pump selection
:5
0w that can be expected to operate well
a: for a long time. Excessively conserva-
tive inlet pressure specifications will
VISCOSITY result in larger, slower and more
Figure 5. Effect of inlet velocity and expensive - and perhaps even less
efficient - pumps..
viscosity on required inlet pressure
VISCOSITY. CST
James R. Brennan is Market Ser-
200 300 400
vices Manager for Imo Pump {Monroe,
130 NC}.
His responsibilities include world-
50 wide marketing and technical support
120
for pumping applications. He is a 1973
graduate of Drexel University in
TEMP. 110 TEMP. Philadelphia and a member of the Soci-
of °c ety of Petroleum Engineers.
40
100
Compliments of
90
30 IMO Industries Inc.
1000 1250 1500 1750 P.o. Box 5020
VISCOSITY -ssu
Monroe, NC 28111-5020, USA
Figure 6. Effect of temperature on Tel: (704) 289-6511
viscosity Fax: (704) 289-9273