Centrifugal pump

  A centrifugal pump is a rotodynamic pump that uses a rotating impeller to increase the pressure of a fluid. Centrifugal pumps are commonly used to move liquids through a piping system. The fluid enters the pump impeller along or near to the rotating axis and is accelerated by the impeller, flowing radially outward into a diffuser or volute chamber, from where it exits into the downstream piping system.

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History

A water or mud-lifting machine that, according to the Brazilian historian of science Reti, "must be characterized as the prototype of the centrifugal pump" appeared as early as 1475 in a treatise by the Italian Renaissance engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini.^[1] True centrifugal pumps were not developed until the late 1600's, when Denis Papin made one with straight vanes. The curved vane was introduced by British inventor John Appold in 1851.

How it Works

A centrifugal pump works on the principle of conversion of the kinetic energy of a flowing fluid (velocity pressure) into static pressure. This action is described by Bernoulli's principle. The rotation of the pump impeller accelerates the fluid as it passes from the impeller eye (centre) and outward through the impeller vanes to the periphery. As the fluid exits the impeller, a proportion of the fluid momentum is then converted to (static) pressure. Typically the volute shape of the pump casing, or the diffuser vanes assist in the energy conversion. The energy conversion results in an increased pressure on the downstream side of the pump, causing flow.

Problems in Centrifugal Pumps

• Cavitation
• Stone Wall
• Surge

See also

• Turbopump
• Pump
• Turbine
• Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH)
• Specific Speed ( Ns or Nss )