CAVITATION IN
CENTRIFUGAL PUMP
Prepared by :
DEBJYOT! MONDAL
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
ASANSOL ENGINEERING COLLEGE
4T! YR
BATCH :- 2013-2017OUTLINE
» Introduction
» Types of cavitation?
» Effects of cavitation
» Cavitation in Centrifugal Pumps
» What is the cause of cavitation & how to avoid it?
» Effects on Performance
» Model
» Conclusions
» References
PeIntroduction
What i
» Cavitation is the formation of vapour bubbles of a flowing liquid
in a region where the pressure of the liquid falls below its
vapour pressure.
itation?
¢
» In general a liquid is set to cavitate when vapour bubbles are
observed to form and grow because of pressure reduction.
Surrounding liquid
Increased static pressure
Cavitation bubble imploding close
to a fixed surface ganerating a jet (4)
of the surrounding liquidCavitation Inception
v It is the phenomenon of rupture of a volume of liquid
when it is subjected to sufficiently low pressure.
Z Liquid may forms a cavity close to the fixed
surface.
# It may occur
> behind the blade of a rapidly rotating propeller,
>on any surface vibrating under water.Types Of Cavitation
Travelling cavitation:
* Composed of individual transit cavities and moves with the
liquid
* May appear at the low pressure points along the solid boundary
orin the high turbulence region.
Fixed Cavitation:
” Develops after inceptions.
e This involves detachment of liquid flow from the rigid boundary
of an immersed body to form a cavity attached to the boundary.
+ Cavities may have highly turbulence boiling surface or it may
also have smooth surface.Vortex Cavitation:
Cavities are found in the cores of vortices, which form in zones
e
of high shear.
+ It often occurs on the blade tips of ships propellers.
+ also referred as Tip cavitation.
Vibratory Cavitation:
* the forces causing cavities to form and collapse are due to
continuous series of high amplitude, high frequency pressure
pulsation in the liquid, generated by a submerged surface, which
vibrates, normal to it’s face.Effects of Cavitation
Harmful Effects:
» Loss in efficiency of the performance of hydraulic machines like
turbines, pumps & Propellers.
» Production of the noise, which is undesirable in the case of
submarines
» Increase in the drag force of cavitating parts
» Undesirable vibrations due to collapse of the bubbles are due to shock
waves set up.
» Material damage due to erosion.The beneficial effects of Cavitation:
» Cavitation can be used for agitation and mixing.
» Acavitation noise boomer can be used as sound source for an echo
ranging survey of ocean bottom conditions
» Jet cavitations can be used very effectively for tunneling through rock.a Cavitation poses problem in operation, of all three types of centrifugal
pumps, viz. radial, mixed and axial flow pumps, whenever high discharge, high
rotational speed, or low head is encountered .
a All The three factors lead to the higher pressure differences between two
sides of the impeller blade, pressure becoming lower on the suction side &
higher on the pressure side. If the pressure at any point in the impeller reaches a
critical temperature, cavitation will result
Sign of Cavitation:
6 knocking noises and vibrations can be heard when it is operating.
> erratic power consumption and fluctuations or reductions.PUMP:
CASING
IMPELLER
WEARING RING
PUMP CASING
WEARING RING
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PSS
NY UU
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4
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qoHow to avoid cavitation?
Asa general rule, centrifugal pumps located less than 4 meters above the
water level should not experience cavitation.
‘The following guidelines should be applied to avoid the problem:
Minimize the number of valves and bends in the suction line
‘Use eccentric reducers, not concentric
Ensure the straight side of the eccentric reducer is installed along the
top of the suction line
Suction length should be as short as possible
Suction pipe should be at least the same diameter as the pump inlet
connection
Use long radius bends
Increase the size of valves and pipe work
Do not allow air into the suction line
Ensure adequate submergence over the foot valve.
The submergence should be at least 5.3 times the suction diameter.EFFECT ON THE PERFORMANCE
+ The most important effect of cavitation as far as pumps are concerned is
the drop in the head and efficiency.
”
In the case of turbines it causes damage to the turbine runner.
» Cavitation cannot be allowed to develop in the pump to such a stage as to
cause damage. This is because the cavities rapidly choke the narrow
passages, restricting the discharge. This is one reason why damage
observations in pumps are far less numerous than in turbines.
> The performance of a pump at a given speed is described in terms of
arge, head, power and efficiency. If a graph of head, BHP or
efficiency of the pump at constant discharge and speed is drawn against
Hsy (Net Positive Suction Head) pumps of different specific speed will
show different behavior.BEHAVIOUR OF PUMPS WITH VARIATION IN Hsy AT CONSTANT DISCHARGE
330
sla
NarcoCONCLUSIONS
1. Cavitation is transient unsteady phenomenon characterized by a
growth of holes or Cavities.
2. Along with harmful effects like loss in efficiency of performance of
hydraulic machines like turbines, pumps, production of noise it has
got beneficial effects also such as in control devices, for agitation and
mixing in special processes.
3. Cavitation creates problem in operation of all three types of
centrifugal pumps viz. radial, mixed and axial flow pumps, whenever
high discharge, high rotational speed or low head is encountered.The most important effect of cavitation on pumps is drop in head
and efficiency. Cavitation can’t be allowed to develop in pump to
such a stage as to cause damage as in turbine runners.
For the pumps with Ns<25 the curves BHP, head and efficiency Vs
Hs drops abruptly as compared to gradual drop of pump having
Ns>60.So pumps with low specific speed are more susceptible to
cavitation as compared to high specific speed pumps.
The impeller outlet conditions have no influence on cavitations.REFERENCES
1. Dr RK Bansal(1998) “A Texatbook of Fluid machanics and
hydraulic machine"page no. 9" eddition.
2. https.//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavitation
3. http://www.rotechpumps.com/all-you-need-to-know-about—
cavitation-in-centrifugal-pumps