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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 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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 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)
• his 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.

Centrifugal
Electrical Energy Pump Pressure energy

EE Kinetic energy Pressure energy

• Prime mover • rotating • stationary

empeler diffuser

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WORK DONE AND VELOCITY
TRIANGLES

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• 𝐶1 =an absolute velocity of fluid at intery and at an
angle α1 the Impeller inlet the tangential velocity
vector 𝑈1 = 𝑟𝜔
− 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.
• 𝑊1 = The resultant relative velocity of the flow into
the bladepassage at an angle 𝛽 1

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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 Cx 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:
𝝉 = 𝒎 𝑪𝒙𝟏 𝒓𝟏 − 𝑪𝒙𝟐 𝒓𝟐
• Therefore the rate of energy transfer, W, is the product of the torque
and the angular velocity of the rotor  (omega), so:
𝑾 = 𝝉𝝎 = 𝒎𝝎 𝑪𝒙𝟏 𝒓𝟏 − 𝑪𝒙𝟐 𝒓𝟐
• For unit mass flow, energy will be given by:
𝑾 = 𝝎 𝑪𝒙𝟏 𝒓𝟏 − 𝑪𝒙𝟐 𝒓𝟐 = 𝑪𝒙𝟏 𝒓𝟏 𝝎 − 𝑪𝒙𝟐 𝒓𝟐 𝝎
• 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
𝑾
𝑬= = (𝑼𝟐 𝑪𝒙𝟐 − 𝑼𝟏 𝑪𝒙𝟏 )/𝒈
𝒎𝒈

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 𝑾
𝑬= = (𝑼𝟐 𝑪𝒙𝟐 − 𝑼𝟏 𝑪𝒙𝟏 )/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 α 1 =90° and 𝑪𝒙𝟏 = 0 because CI = 𝑪𝒓𝟏
• 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.

𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑥2
Slip factor =
𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑥2
𝐶𝑥2 ′
Slip factor, 𝜎 =
𝐶𝑥2

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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

𝝈𝑼𝟐 𝑪𝒙𝟐 − 𝑼𝟏 𝑪𝒙𝟏
𝑬=
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𝒈 32
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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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 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 kg of water
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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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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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Quiz 1:
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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