Chapter 2

Centrifugal Pumps

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 Pump
• Water pumps are devices designed to convert
mechanical energy to hydraulic energy (pressure
energy).
• They are used to move water from lower points to
higher points with a required discharge and pressure
head.
• Enables fluid to:-
− Flow from lower pressure to higher pressure
− Flow from lower level to higher level
− Flow at faster rate
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 Positive displacement
• Use mechanical means to vary the size of fluid chamber
to cause fluid flow.
• Has constant Torque
• The pressure developed and the work done are a
result of the work done essentially static
forces rather than dynamic effects
− Gear pump
− Screw pumps
− Reciprocating pumps

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 Gear pump

• Uses the meshing of gears to pump fluid

by displacement.
• There are two types
− External gear pumps which uses two
external spur gears,
− Internal gear pump which uses an external
and internal spur gears (internal spur gear
teeth face inwars)

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 Screw pumps.
In the screw pump a revolving shaft fitted with
blades rotates in an inclined trough and pushes
the water up the trough.

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 Reciprocating pumps.
In the reciprocating pump a piston sucks the fluid
into a cylinder then pushes it up causing the water to
rise.

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 Turbo-hydraulic (kinetic) pumps
Impart momentum to fluid by rotating object. Has
variable torque
−Centrifugal pumps (radial-flow pumps)
−Propeller pumps (axial-flow pumps)
−Jet pumps (mixed-flow pumps)

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• Radial Flow - a centrifugal pump in which the pressure is
developed wholly by centrifugal force.

• Mixed Flow - a centrifugal pump in which the pressure is

developed partly by centrifugal force and partly by the lift
of the vanes of the impeller on the liquid.

• Axial Flow - a Kinetic pump in which the pressure is

developed by the propelling or lifting action of the vanes
of the impeller on the liquid.

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 Centrifugal Pumps
Eenergy is imparted to the fluid by centrifugal
action of moving blades from the inner radius to the
outer radius.

Flow Expansion
Discharge
Casing
Suction Eye Impeller
Impeller
Vanes
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Centrifugal pumps (radial-flow pumps) are the most used
pumps for hydraulic purposes. For this reason, their
hydraulics will be studied in the following sections.

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CP converts Mechanical energy from a Motor to the energy of
moving fluid.
• A portion of the energy goes to kinetic enery of the fluid
motion and some into potential energy represented by fluid
pressure or by lifting the fluid, againist gravity, to higher
altitude.

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 Main Components
A centrifugal pump is built up of two main parts:
1. THE ROTOR (or Rotating Element).
2. THE CASING (or Housing or Body).

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 Rotor
• It is the only moving part in a centrifugal pump
• It contains
1. THE IMPELLER(S) -Often called the 'Wheel(s)'.
(In the center of an impeller, is the 'EYE' which
receives the inlet flow of liquid into the 'Vanes' of
the impeller).
2. THE SHAFT -The impeller(s) is/are mounted on
the shaft and enclosed by a casing

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 Main Components

Impeller
• Which is the rotating part of the centrifugal pump.
• It consists of a series of backwards curved,
forwarded curved or radial/straight vanes (blades).
• The impeller is driven by a shaft which is connected
to the shaft of an electric motor.

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There are various types of impeller depending on the
duty to be performed by the pump
• The Open Impeller
• Semi-Open Impeller
• Closed Impeller

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 The Shaft
The Impeller(s) are mounted on this part of the pump which
is then referred to as the 'Rotor' or rotating element which is
coupled (connected) to the pump driver. The driver imparts
the rotation to the rotor that is housed in the casing,
supported by the bearings.
The shaft, due to the high speed of rotation, will tend to
move :-
Radially -movement across the shaft (Vibration) and,
Axially -movement along the shaft (Thrust).

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 Casing
• Which is an air-tight passage surrounding the impeller
• designed to direct the liquid to the impeller and lead it
away
• Casings are generally of two types
− Volute casing. It is of spiral type in which the area of the flow
increases gradually.
− Circular casing have stationary diffusion vanes surrounding
the impeller periphery that convert velocity energy to pressure
energy.

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 Diffuser
• The stationary blade passages have an increasing
cross-sectional area
• Used to change the kinetic energy to pressure
(leads fluid to overcome the resistance to flow)

Volute

Impeller Suction

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 Working principle
• The liquid enters the suction nozzle and then into eye
(center) of a revolving device known as an impeller.
• When the impeller rotates, it spins the liquid sitting in
the cavities between the vanes outward and provides
centrifugal acceleration.
• As liquid leaves the eye of the
impeller a low-pressure area is
created causing more liquid to flow
toward the inlet.
• Then fluid is pushed in a
tangential and radial direction by
the centrifugal force.
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• The centrifugal force in impeler creates
kinetic energy (proportional to blade
velocity)
• This kinetic energy of a liquid coming out of
an impeller is harnessed by creating a
resistance to the flow in casing /volute/ and
diffucer.
• In the discharge nozzle, the liquid further
decelerates and its velocity is converted to
pressure according to Bernoulli’s principle.

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 Centerfugal
Electrical Energy Pmp Pressure energy

EE Kinetic energy Pressure

Motor Power energy
• Prive moover • rotating • stationarey
empeler diffucer

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 Class 2
Recall
• Centerfugal Pump is
used to facilitate a fluid
flow from low pressure
point to high pressure
point by using
centerfugal action
• The main components
are
− Rotor
− Volute/casing/ hausing
− Suction and delivery pipe
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 WORK DONE AND
VELOCITY TRIANGLES

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•  =an absolute velocity of fluid at intery and at an
angle the Impeller inlet the tangential velocity
vector
− Ca1—Axial velocity in a direction parallel to the axis of the
rotating shaft.
− Cr1— Radial velocity in the direction normal to the axis of the
rotating shaft.
− Cx1— whirl or tangential velocity in the direction normal to a
radius.
• = The resultant relative velocity of the flow into the
bladepassage at an angle

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• Exit velocity C2 can be resolved into three
components: that is, Ca2, Cr2, and Cx2.
• The change in magnitude of the axial velocity
components through the rotor gives rise to an axial
force
• The change in magnitude of the radial velocity
components produces radial force.
• Neither has any effect on the angular motion of the
rotor.

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• The whirl or tangential components C x produce the
rotational effect.
• The unit mass of fluid entering at section 1 and
leaving in any unit of time produces:
• The angular momentum at the inlet: Cx1r1
• The angular momentum at the outlet: Cx2r2
• Therefore,
the rate of change of angular momentum = Cx1r1 – Cx2r2

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Cont….
 • Under steady flow conditions, using mass flow rate m, the torque 
exerted by or acting on the rotor will be:

• Therefore the rate of energy transfer, W, is the product of the torque

and the angular velocity of the rotor  (omega), so:

• For unit mass flow, energy will be given by:

• But, r1= U1 and r2= U2.

• Using Euler’s pump equation, the work done per second on the
water per unit mass of fluid flowing

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   𝑾
𝑬= =(𝑼 𝟐 𝑪 𝒙 𝟐 −𝑼 𝟏 𝑪 𝒙𝟏 )/ 𝒈
𝒎𝒈
where,
• W is the energy transferred per unit mass
• U1 and U2 are the rotor speeds at the inlet and the exit
respectively
• Cx is the component of absolute velocity in the tangential
direction.
• E is referred to as the Euler head and represents the ideal
or theoretical head developed by the impeller only.

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• From velocity triangle

• Therefore, ’’E“ in terms of absolute velocity is obtained

as follows:

• Using cosine rule

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• Substituting in energy equation

• The part (C22 – C12 )/2 represents the change in kinetic

energy of the liquid.
• The part (U22 – U12 )/2 represents the effect of the
centrifugal head or energy produced by the impeller.
• The part (V22 - V12 )/2 represents the change in static
pressure of the liquid, if the losses in the impeller are
neglected.
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•  As the water enters the impeller radially, the absolute
velocity of water at inlet is in the radial direction and
hence at 90° and = 0 because CI =
• In this case,

• The mass flow rate is:

• Cr is the radial component of absolute velocity and is

perpendicular to the tangent at the inlet and outlet and b is
the width of the blade

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 SLIP FACTOR
•  There is no assurance that the actual fluid will follow
the blade shape and leave the impeller in a radial
direction.
• There is usually a slight slippage of the fluid with
respect to the blade rotation.

Slip factor
Slip factor,

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• Where, from figure above β2’ is the angle at which the fluid
leaves the impeller, and β2 is the actual blade angle, and Cx2
and Cx2‘ are the tangential components of absolute velocity
corresponding to the angles β2 and β2’, respectively.
• Thus, Cx2 is reduced to Cx2’ and the difference Cx is defined
as the slip.
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•  According to Stodola’s theory, slip in centrifugal pumps
and compressors is due to relative rotation of fluid in a
direction opposite to that of impeller with the same angular
velocity as that of an impeller.
• For purely radial blades, which are often used in
centrifugal compressors, β2 will be 900 and the Stodola slip
factor becomes

• where n is the number of vanes. The Stanitz slip factor is

• Aapplying a slip factor, the Euler pump equation becomes

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Kuma G. and Dejene K.
The effect of impeller shape
There are three main categories of impeller due type of impeller’s
vane, which are used in the centrifugal pumps as;
 Backward vanes, β2 < 900
 Radial vanes, β2 = 900
 Forward vanes, β2 > 900

 For backward-curved vanes, the value of Cw2 (whirl

component at outlet) is much reduced. Thus, such rotors
have a low energy transfer for a given impeller tip speed

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 HEAD DEVELOPED
•STATIC
  HEAD (Hs)
• The vertical distance
between the two levels in
the reservoirs
• It is the sum of suction
head and delivery head

Where ;
• =From level in sump to
pump center line
• = from pump center line
to overhead tank
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 HEAD DEVELOPED
•Monomeric
  Head (Hm)
• It is a head against which
a centrifugal pump does
work
• The pump total inlet and
outlet heads are
measured at the inlet and
outlet flanges respectively

• Or
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 Pump Losses
•   shaft power or energy Psthat is supplied to the pump by the
The
prime mover is not the same as the energy received by the liquid.
The difference is mainly due the following losses:
Mechanical friction power losses ()
• Due to friction between the fixed and rotating parts
− Bearing and stuffing boxes
Disc friction power losses ()
• Due to friction between rotating faces of the impeller and the
liquid
Leakage and recirculation power losses )
• Loss of liquid in impeller
Casing power loss ()
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 Generally these losses are
•  Pipe losses
Friction loss: Given by the most known Darcy –
Weisbach equation
is friction factor which can be read from the Moody
diagram for different pipe relative roughness and
Reynolds number for turbulent flow. For laminar flow an
approximate value can be found by using
Elbow loss
Cross section change loss

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Moody diagram for flow in pipes

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Pictures of some loss mechanisms in pipes

Sudden contraction of cross – section

Elbow loss

Sudden expansion of cross – section

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 Impeller Loss
•Impeller
  Power Loss (Disc Friction Power Loss ()
Caused by
• the impeller due to disc friction,
• Flow separation
• shock at the impeller entry,

Leakage Power Loss

• Caused by the pressure difference between the impeller
eye and tip that leads to a recirculation of fluids, which
reduces the outlet flow rate.

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 Casing Power Loss
• 

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Flow through an impeller is determined primarily
by three factors

 Vane width
 Number of vanes
 Impeller speed

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 Mechanical efficiency
• 

=head loss in impeller

=total head across impeller
Or

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Manometric (or) hydraulic efficiency
• 

And

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Volumetric efficiency
• 

Impeller efficiency

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 Overall efficiency
• 

The overall efficiency η can be expressed as the product

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 Examples
1. A fluid passes through an impeller of 0.22m outlet
diameter and 0.1m inlet diameter. The impeller is rotating
at 1250 rpm, and the outlet vane angle is set back at an
angle of 220 to the tangent. Assuming that the fluid enters
radially with velocity of flow as 3.5 m/s, calculate the head
imparted to a fluid.
2. A centrifugal pump impeller runs at 1400 rpm, and vanes
angle at exit is 250. The impeller has an external diameter
of 0.4m and an internal diameter of 0.2 m. Assuming a
constant radial flow through the impeller at 2.6 m/s,
calculate (1) the angle made by the absolute velocity of
water at exit with the tangent, (2) the inlet vane angle, and
(3) the work done per Kuma
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 Example 3 and 4
• The impeller of a centrifugal pump has outer diameter of
1.06m and speed is 56 m/s. The blades are backward
curved and they make an angle of 200 with the wheel
tangent at the blade tip. If the radial velocity of the flow at
the tip is 7.5 m/s and the slip factor is 0.88. Determine (1)
the actual work input per kg of water flow and (2) the
absolute velocity of fluid at the impeller.
• A centerfugal pump of 1.3m diameter delivers 3.5 cubic
meter per minutes of water at a tip speed of 10m/s and a
flow velocity of 1.6m/s. The out let blade angle is 30 to
tangent at periphery. By assuming zero wirl and zero slip
factor calculate torque.

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Example 5.
• A centrifugal pump has external and internal impeller
diameters as 60 cm and 30m respectively. The vane
angle at inlet and outlet arc 30 and 45 degrees
respectively. If the water enters the impeller at 2.5
meters/sec. Find (a) speed of the impellers in rpm. (b)
work done per kg of water.

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 Solution no 1:
Since fluid enters in the radial direction, Cw1 = 0, 1 =
900, β2 = 220, Ca1 = 3.5 m/s = Ca2

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Solution no 2

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Cont….

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A centrifugal pump runs at a tip speed of 12 m/s and a flow
velocity of 1.5 m/s. The impeller diameter is 1.2m and
delivers 3.8m3/min of water. The outlet blade angle is 280
to the tangent at the impeller periphery. Assuming that the
fluid enters in the axial direction and zero slip, calculate
the torque delivered by the impeller.

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Solution no 3:

The Euler head H = E = (U2Cw2 - U1Cw1)/g. Since Cw1 =

0, as there is no inlet whirl component, head H is given
by

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Solution no 4:

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A centerfugal pump of 1.3m diameter delivers 3.5 cubic
meter per minutes of water at a tip speed of 10m/s and
a flow velocity of 1.6m/s. The out let blade angle is 30
to tangent at periphery. By assuming zero wirl and zero
slip factor calculate torque.

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 Cavitation
• Cavitation is the formation and subsequent collapse or
implosion of vapor bubbles in the pump. It occurs
because the absolute pressure on the liquid falls below
the liquid’s vapor pressure.
• When the vapor bubbles collapse with enough
frequency, it sounds like marbles and rocks are moving
through the pump. If the vapor bubbles collapse with
enough energy, they can remove metal from the internal
casing wall, and leave indent marks appearing like blows
from a large ball pein hammer.

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Syptoms

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 Causes Consequences
• Suction losses • Low efficiency
• Leakage
• High impeller
• Pitting and
Symptoms speed erosion
o High noise
o Vibration
• vibration
o power fluctuation

cavitation

Regions Solution
• Eye • Pressurizing reservoir
• Pressure gradient • Reducing negative suction head
• Air leakage • Reducing losses in the suction side
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• Working at low temperature 73
Kuma G. and Dejene K.
Net Positive Suction Head
(NPSH)
•  NPSH is an important parameter in dealing with the
formation of cavitation in suction side or impeller
eye of a centrifugal pump.
• is the minimum criteria for the pump to work
above for cavitation free operation.
• NPSH is the pressure head difference between the
impeller eye absolute pressure and the vapor
pressure of the liquid.

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Cont…
•  Applying Bernoulli’s equation from pipe suction end
to impeller eye

𝑃  𝑒 ,𝑉 𝑒

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Cont…

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NPSHr and NPSHa
• NPSH required is the NPSH value that is set by the
pump manufacturer in which the pump should
operate above this value to avoid potential cause of
cavitation. It is obtained by a thorough
experimental investigation.
• NPSH available is the NPSH value of the actual
working condition. The same pump may face
different systems and working conditions so that
NPSHa varies. Pump users should always make sure
that NPSHa > NPSHr.

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 Performance curves
Think of the pump curve like the dashboard or
control panel of a car. They are
• The Head-Flow Curve. It is called the H-Q Curve.
• The Efficiency Curve.
• The Energy Curve. It records Brake
Horsepower, BHP.
• The Pump’s Minimum Requirement Curve. Its
called Net Positive Suction Head required, NPSHr.

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 Head-Flow Curve
• The pump can elevate a liquid in a vertical
tube up to a point where the weight of the
liquid and gravity will permit no more
elevation.
• This point on the pump curve would be the
‘shut-off head’.
• Shut-off head is the point of maximum elevation
at zero flow.

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Steps to draw
• The pump's flow rate is plotted on the horizontal axis (
X axis), Usually expressed in cubic meter per second
• The head the pump produces is plotted on the vertical
axis (Y axis). Usually express in meter of Water

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 Pump Performance Curve
H-Q

Performance Curve

• Most pump
performance curves
slope from left to right
Head

Pump Flow Rate

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 Pump Performance Curve
Important Points

Shut-off Head
• Shut-off Head is the maximum pressure or
head the pump can produce
• No flow is produced
Head

Pump Flow Rate

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 Pump Performance Curve
Important Points

Maximum Flow

• Maximum Flow is the

largest flow the pump can
produce
Head

• No Head is produced

Pump Flow Rate

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Pump efficiency

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 The energy (BHp) curve
• Consider: the pump consumes a certain quantity of
energy just to maintain shut-off head. Then, as flow
begins and increases, the horsepower consumption
normally increases. (On certain specific duty pumps, the
BHp may remain mostly flat or even fall with an increase
in flow

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The pump’s minimum requirements
(NPSH)

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 System Performance Curves
• System Performance Curve is a mapping of the head
required to produce flow in a given system
• A system includes all the pipe, fittings and devices the
fluid must flow through, and represents the friction loss
the fluid experiences
• A pumping system operates where the pump curve and
the system resistance curve intersect. The intersection of
the two curves defines the operating point of both pump
and process. However, it is impossible for one operating
point to meet all desired operating conditions. For
example, when the discharge valve is throttled, the
system resistance curve shift left and so does the
operating
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point. Kuma G. and Dejene K. 88
 • The friction loss is mapped onto the graph
• The amount of friction loss varies with flow through
the system

Friction Loss
Head

Pump Flow Rate

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 The point on the system curve that intersects
the pump curve is known as the operating
point.
Head

Pump Flow Rate

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CHANGING PUMP SPEED
Given the head–discharge-efficiency characteristics
for speed N (in tabular form), the corresponding
characteristics for any speed N’ can be established as
follows:

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MULTIPLE PUMP OPERATION
Where pumps operate in parallel, the composite
curve is obtained by adding the flow rates for a given
head

Where pumps operate in series, the

composite is obtained by adding heads
for a given flow rate
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 Example 1
•A  backward curved centrifugal pump needs to lift water in to
a reservoir 20 m above the datum water level. The discharge
is 0.05 m3/s. All the piping are 5 cm in diameter with total
length of 30 m and the elbow losses can be taken as 0.4 m.
Mechanical efficiency is 0.90, impeller efficiency is 0.86,
hydraulic efficiency is 0.84.
Calculate the manometric head, the impeller exit blade
angle if the impeller diameter is 20 cm, impeller width at exit
is 5cm and the motor speed is 3000 rpm. The water is
assumed to enter radially. Take , and for water.
Also calculate the overall efficiency required motor power.
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Example 2
In the previous example, if the suction pipe length is
4m and the suction static head is 4m, calculate the
NPSH. Assume the impeller inlet flow area is 1/12th of
the exit flow area. Take all suction losses 1m.

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The left titles
• Pump design ..........chapter 5
• Fan ....................chapter 3

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