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CHAPTER 1

1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes the overall structure of this thesis work

and importance of mixed flow submersible pump in the irrigation sector.

1.1 OVERALL STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS

Figure 1.1 Structure of Thesis

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1.2 INTRODUCTION TO SUBMERSIBLE PUMPS

Armais Arutun off invented the submersible borewell pumpset at

the age of 18 in Ukraine in the year 1916. A US patent was obtained in 1927.
He started the first factory to manufacture them in the name of REDA
(Russian Electrical Dynamo of Arutunoff) in 1928 at Bartlesville, Oklahoma,
USA. These submerible pumps were used in oil wells to pump crude oil. Oil
filled motors were used in these pumpsets. Meanwhile, in Europe, the same
design concept was evolved in water filled wet type winding motor, fitted with
vertical multistage centrifugal turbine pumps suitable for water pumping from
borewells. In Germany, in 1926 Pluger started to manufacture these water
borewell pumpsets followed by KSB, Hubner, Odessaa Pumpen, Aturia in
Italy and Hayward Taylor in England. Now KSB, Pluger and other companies
are still manufacturing these pumpsets throughout the world. Another pioneer
manufacturer is Byron Jackson in America. Now both Pluger and Byron
Jackson are under Flowserve Corporation. Other water borewell pump
manufacturers worldwide are Franklin Electric and Pump Systems, Sta Rite,
Goulds in USA and Grundfos who started manufacturing stainless steel pumps
in Denmark from 1964.

KSB came to India in 1969 by establishing its subsidiary

company at Pune. Pluger gave its technical know-how to Calama, Ahmedabad
in 1960s.These two brands started manufacturing these submersible borewell
pumps in India from then on. Following this development, many Indian
companies had adopted their design and manufacturing technologies and
started manufacturing them. At present the major manufacturers in India are
M/s Aquasub Engineering who makes "Texmo" brand submersible pumps,
CRI, Taro, Deccan, Mahendra, Suguna, et.al. in Coimbatore, KSB in Pune,
Varuna, Pluga, Waterman, Lubi in Ahmedabad, Falcon in Rajkot, Sakthi in
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Madhya Pradesh, Oswal in Haryana, WPIL in Kolkatta, Crompton Greaves in

Mumbai et.al. The submersible pumpsets market has grown more than the
surface monoblock centrifugal pumpsets. The ground water level throughout
India is depleting every year. So, more tubewells and borewells are drilled in
large numbers. Now, the lift irrigation for agriculture mainly depends on
borewells only. Out of estimated 60 million wells in India, the borewell
population is nearly 30 million as per Ministry of Agriculture, India survey.

Among all the countries in the world, India was the first country
to formulate standards on submersible pumpsets and to specify minimum level
of pump efficiencies for various duty points, that is, for various heads and
discharge rates. An Indian standardIS 8034:2002 (Submersible Pumpsets -
Specification (Second Revision) November 2002) was first published in 1976
by the Pumps Sectional Committee of Mechanical Engineering Division of
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) formerly known as Indian Standards
Institution(ISI). In 1994, a standard for submersible borewell motors was
formulated by the Electro Technical Department of BIS as IS 9283
(Specification of Submersible motors).

In the year 1989 the standard IS8034 was revised with the
following changes.

1. Nomenclature for radial flow and mixed flow pumps

2. A graph for overall minimum efficiency for submersible

pumpsetswith2-pole motor was added so as to promote energy
conservation.
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In the second revision in 2002,alarge number of data relating to

submersible pump efficiencies were collected and after analysing the data,
minimum pump efficiency has been increased by five percent over the existing
pump efficiency values. At present the BIS is once again considering for
upward revision of efficiency values on the standard to promote further energy
conservation.

In USA, Hydraulic Institute (HI) had released charts of

"Optimum generally attainable efficiency" in 1994 for different types of
pumps. One of them is the Vertical Turbine Bowl Assembly type pump. Apart
from this, the HI had also issued two charts, one for "Specific Speed -
Efficiency Correction" and another for "Deviation from Generally Attainable
Efficiency". The deviation from generally attainable efficiency for a specific
speed occurs due to various factors like Casting Surface Quality, Machining
Accuracy, etc.

Recently in 2012, Hydraulic Institute, USA and Euro Pump, the

apex body of associations of pump manufacturers in countries of European
Union have initiated a new guideline for energy conservation in pumps and the
MEI (Minimum Efficiency Index) concept was introduced. They have released
thumb nail efficiency graphs with MEI > 0.1, 0.4 and 0.7 with time limits up
to 2013, 2015 and from 2017 onwards respectively.
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1.3 MIXED FLOW SUBMERSIBLE BOREWELL PUMPS

The mixed flow submersible pumps are used to pump water from
higher depths of the ground. These pumps are erected in the tubewells dug in
the alluvial soil mainly in the delta regions of the rivers. The number of pumps
utilised for this purpose is increasing in the last two decades all over the world
andIndia. More and more borewells are drilled for tapping the ground water
sources. The sizes of borewells range from diameters 100mm, 150mm,
200mm, 250mm and upto 350mm. 100mm and 150mm borewell sizes are
widely used. The present study is about the pumpused in the 150mm diameter
borewells.

1.3.1 Construction and working of Submersible Pumpset

These pumpsets are used in borewells and tubewells for pumping

water from deeper depths of earth. Since river lift irrigation and shallow well
irrigation are not feasible in all parts of India, these pumpsets are used as the
back bone of irrigation in the field. With these pumpsets, the agricultural
production in India is touching higher levels in the last two decades.

The submersible pumpset consists of the following:

1. Pump Assembly and

2. Motor Assembly

1.3.2 Submersible Pump

The Multistage centrifugal pumps are submersible type and are

coupled directly with wet winding submersible induction motors. The
submersible pump of mixed flow type is shown in Figure 1.2. The inlet
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bracket (1) is used to guide the water entry into the first stage mixed flow
impeller(2). The rotating blade system in the impeller imparts energy to the
water and water comes out with high velocity in a conical spiral pattern. The
diffuser (3) blade passage collects the water, diffuses its velocity and directs
the water to the next stage impeller. The velocity of the water at the second
stage is kept same as that of the first stage, but the pressure energy is higher
which is gained at the first impeller. This process repeats in all the subsequent
stages and the energy is added in all the stages by the work done at the
impeller passages. The discharge casing (4) is at the end of the stages. It
collects the water and directs it to the column pipe (5) which is transferring the
water to the ground level. Also column pipe is supporting the entire pumpset
i.e pump coupled with the motor(6) and the axial down thrust caused by the
pump impellers during running.

1.3.3 Submersible Motor

It consists of a stator and rotor sub-assemblies. The silicon steel

stampings (7) are used in the stator and rotor. The PVC or PP covered copper
wires are used in the stator winding (8). The shaft (9) is made up of magnetic
stainless steel grade AISI 410, 431. A thrust bearing (10) is used in the bottom
of the motor to take care of the down thrust produced in the pump assembly
while running. Two journal bearings (11) are used to align the shaft. The thrust
bearing is made up of mechanical carbon disk vs. stainless steel pad
combination which results in lowest friction. The journal bearings are made of
bronze or mechanical carbon for better support.
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Column Pipe

P
U
M
P

M
O
T
O
R

2 3

1.Inlet bracket 2.Impeller 3.Diffuser 4.Discharge casing

5.Column pipe 6.Motor 7.Stampings 8.Windings 9.Shaft
10.Thrust bearing 11.Journal bearing
Figure 1.2 Submersible Pumpset
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1.3.4 Impeller

This is the main component of pump where the energy is

imparted to the fluid by the vane system. The power is received from the pump
shaft which is assembled with number of impellers at regular intervals .The
torque is transmitted to the central hub portion of the impeller through a key
and key way arrangement. There are two types of impellers namely, closed
impeller and semi open impeller used in these multistage vertical pump
system. In the present case, the impeller is of closed type as shown in
Figure A 6.15. The two sides of the vane system are covered by front shroud
or shroud portion and back shroud or hub portion. So the name "closed
impeller" is used in vogue. The front shroud portion is having suction boss or
clearance seal portion to effectively seal the high pressure side of impeller
outlet and the low pressure side of impeller inlet or suction area. The blade
system for this specific speed, NS 54.15 is of mixed flow type where the fluid
outlet is slanted to impeller axis with an obtuse angle, more than 900of a
typical radial flow outlet. Since the Outlet to Inlet diameter ratio is less than
1.5 times, the double curvature blade surface is required to increase the vane
area and impart sufficient blade loading. The manufacturing is complex in
comparison with radial flow impeller where the blades are cast 90° to the
shroud and hub walls which is easy for manufacturing with single core. For
the mixed flow twisted wall blades, special or loose core system is required.

1.3.5 Diffuser

This is the stationary part which collects the water from the
rotating impeller outlet passages. It collects and diffuses the high velocity
water along its passages. The kinetic energy of the water is converted into
pressure energy in the diffuser. The water velocity is reduced to suction eye
velocity level at diffuser vane outlet. The multistage mixedflow diffuser
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passage is made into a zig-zag shape in the meridional view and the water is
redirected to the next stage impeller eye. Due to this typical shape, the diffuser
looks like a bowl as shown in Figure 5.1. The diffuser vanes are arranged
symmetrically around the impeller outlet. So, there is no resultant radial force
acting on the impeller assembly. A bronze or rubber wear ring is provided in
all the diffusers to reduce the leakage of water from high pressure impeller
outlet side to low pressure suction inlet side. The purpose of the wear ring is to
maintain optimum clearance gap to typically 0.125mm per side to reduce the
backflow leakage for maintaining a higher volumetric efficiency. Also, when
it comes for service purpose after wear and tear damage due to operation in the
field, the wear ring can be easily replaced with a new one quickly and with
lesser cost. Otherwise, the diffuser itself has to be changed to maintain the
close clearance gap. The diffuser has twisted blade shapes which are difficult
to cast. The complex passages are to be cast exactly as per the design model
surface file and critical core manufacturing techniques are employed to cast
the diffuser. Smooth surface finish is essential in all the diffuser passages.
Coating of the core surface results in smooth internal cast surface of the
diffuser. Bronze or rubber bearing bush is fitted in each diffuser to support the
shaft and impeller assembly. The bearing bush has straight or spiral grooves
for better lubrication during running.