Motor and pump system Engineering Team A-09 Lance Alderson, Gabe Montgomery

Basics of a pump and motor system A pump moving water is a prime example of energy conservation. The mechanical energy of a motor attached to the pump will be transferred to the water in three different form. Potential energy from the water being raised to a certain height. Potential energy from the pressure created by the pump, and kinetic energy from moving the water it self through the system.

Drafting with 3D programs Design: The design of the Impeller that was intended to be tested in the project is shown to the left. This design was selected for two major reasons. The first being that the impeller blades are slanted so that when the water hits them they will help rotate the impeller. The second reason is that the blades are also curved which will help force the water out of the pump. Challenges: the difficulty in drawing this impeller would be the fact that the blades are slanted. Google sketch up which was used to draw all of the parts does not lend its self well for precision 3D drafting. When it came to angling the blades on the impeller it was alignment by sight. Further more when drawing the housing the outlet hole on the side could not be drawn all the way through due to the limitations of Google sketch up. Insert picture here

Motor and pump testing Purpose: For this challenge the efficiency of two different pumps were tested. The first pump supplied was created by the Instructor. The second pump was an off the shelf garden fountain pump. Both were connected to a bucket of water and used to pump water to various heights. After this we were supposed to test the impeller designed by our team in comparison to the two supplied pump systems. Obstacles: During the testing of the pumps only the standard pump and fountain pump were tested. This was due to the fact that the standard pump had a leak in it where the shaft of the motor met the impeller housing. This meant that the impeller design on the previous slide was not tested due to a large quantity of water that had been leaked out while testing the class pump. This did not effect the testing of the fountain pump because we took into account the decrease in water volume. The basic set for testing the pumps

Flow rate comparison The chart illustrates the flow rate of both pumps tested. Right off the bat you can see that the class pump had the ability to maintain a large flow rate at a much higher head height than the fountain pump. The class pump had a flow rate of L/min at a head height of 1.6 m where the fountain pump could only reach 0.6 m with a similar flow rate of.226 L/min. The class pump can put out a similar flow rate as the fountain pump but with a meter more head height. Due to the shape of the graph a person could conclude that when the head height is zero the flow rate will also equal zero. This is simply because you would not have to move the water. On the other end of the graph when the flow rate is zero the head height varies. For the fountain pump it would look to around.75 m and the class pump closer to 1.80 cm.

Efficiency comparison As with the last slide this chart also represents the two pumps but this time it is the efficiency that is being looked at. The efficiency of the class pump is far greater than that of the fountain pump. It is interesting to note that at a certain point the pump reaches a maximum efficiency before it starts to decline. This can be seen on both pumps. The Class pump maxed out at % at roughly one meter. The fountain pump maxed out a % and meters. Both graphs have trend lines that for parabolas, that means at certain head heights you will have the same efficiency. For example the class pump has roughly the same efficiency if the head height was 0.6m or 1.4 m.

recommendations There are a number of ways in which the project could be improved. the first improvement would be to the pumps themselves. As noted in the previous slides the standard pump that was tested first leaked a large quantity of water. If the seal around the motor shaft and the housing could be improved without increasing the friction between the housing and the motor shaft then it would make testing the pump much more easier. Another recommendation would be to require that the Excel spread sheet be completed and tested before coming to class so that the pump testing can run for smoothly.