Chemical Engineering Lab Report: Centrifugal Pump Experiment Analysis

This lab report details an experiment characterizing the performance of a centrifugal pump. The objectives included determining the pump's performance across varying flow rates and analyzing the effects of connecting pumps in series and parallel. The report presents experimental results, including pump efficiency, power input, and total head, and discusses the characteristic curves generated. The experiment involved measuring these parameters for a single pump and for pumps connected in series and parallel. The results are presented in tables and graphs, illustrating the relationships between flow rate, total head, and other parameters. The analysis reveals the pump's performance characteristics, concluding that pump efficiency, power input, and total head can be defined using different levels of speed for the pump.

Running head: CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB 1
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB 2
Lab report
Abstract
Pumps are mechanical devices that are used for raising, compressing and moving a fluid and are
largely used for performing different chemical engineering activities that help make work easier.
This is a laboratory activity that is aimed at performing a characterization of a centrifugal pumps
as well as evaluating the effects of connecting pumps in both parallel and series. (Derakhshan &
Nourbakhsh, 2014).
Objectives
The main objectives of carrying out this laboratory exercise was to;
 To perform a characterisation the centrifugal pump performance over a range of rates of
flow.
 To find out the lines of equal power and efficiency and make a presentation of these lines
by plotting graphs that represent the information
 To characterise the performance of the pumps when the connection of centrifugal pumps
are done in both parallel and in series.
Results and discussion
a) Pump characteristics
The experiment was mainly focused on determining the operating characteristics of the
centrifugal pump. The major graphical representations of the performance of a pump that will be
measured in this experiment are;
 Pump efficiency, E

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB 3
 Power input to the pump, Pm
 Change in total head produced by the pump, Ht
b) Pump characteristic curves
The experiment was categorized into two. It first begins by determining the characteristic curves
for a single pump where we determine graphical representations of the Pump efficiency, Power
input to the pump and the Change in total head produced by the pump. Next was to determine the
characteristic curves for pumps connected in parallel and in series and then the same procedure
for a single pump followed (Moreno et al, 2012).
1. Characteristic curves for a single pump
The following results were obtained.
Error analysis
Table R4.1

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB 4
1 2 3 4 5 6
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Table R4.2 ____________________________________

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
2. Characteristic curves for Pumps in series and parallel
The results obtained are tabulated as shown below;
Table R4.3 _____________________________________

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Chart Title
pump in series flow rate pump in series mechanical power
pump in series efficiency pump in series total head
pump in parallel flow rate pump in parallel mechanical power
pump in parallel efficiency pump in parallel total head
Each of the parameters, pump efficiency, total head and power input, are measured at some
pump speed that is constant. A graphical representation is carried out to show the performance of
each of the parameters. From the presentation, we can be able to determine the overall
performance of the pump.
The head and flow rate curves represents the relationship that exists between the rate of flow and
the total head. They are represented by an Ht-Q curve. It can be seen that as the rate of flow
increases, the total also decreases. This represents a rising characteristic type of curve. For this
experiment, there was only a single possible rate of flow for a given head, representing a stable
head-capacity characteristic type of curve (Muggli, Holbein & Dupont, 2015).

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB 7
Conclusions
From the experiment, we can realize that the three major characteristics of the pump, the Pump
efficiency, Power input to the pump and the Change in total head can be defined using different
levels of speed for the pump. This experimental activity therefore achieves the objective of
determining the pump characteristics of a centrifugal pump. The experiment is also useful when
determining different parameters of the pump that are required (Nautiyal et al, 2011).

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB 8
References
Derakhshan, S., & Nourbakhsh, A. (2014). Experimental study of characteristic curves of
centrifugal pumps working as turbines in different specific speeds. Experimental thermal
and fluid science, 32(3), 800-807.
Moreno, M. A., Planells, P., Córcoles, J. I., Tarjuelo, J. M., & Carrión, P. A. (2012).
Development of a new methodology to obtain the characteristic pump curves that
minimize the total cost at pumping stations. Biosystems Engineering, 102(1), 95-105.
Muggli, F. A., Holbein, P., & Dupont, P. (2015). CFD calculation of a mixed flow pump
characteristic from shutoff to maximum flow. Journal of fluids engineering, 124(3), 798-
802.
Nautiyal, H., Varun, V., Kumar, A., & Yadav, S. Y. S. (2011). Experimental investigation of
centrifugal pump working as turbine for small hydropower systems. Energy Science and
technology, 1(1), 79-86.