Experimental Investigation of Archimedes Screw Pump
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 8
Abstract
There is essentially no experimental data on Archimedes screw pump performance available in the literature that is sufficiently detailed for model validation. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory scale (0.3-m diameter) Archimedes screw pump to characterize the pumping efficiency of the screw pump at various inlet basin water levels and screw rotation speeds. The results provide new insights into the effect of inlet and outlet basin level on screw pump efficiency. The flow rate of water pumped is proportional to the rotation speed of the screw, and increases with increasing inlet basin depth until the basin level exceeds that needed to fully fill the screw without overflowing. Comparisons are made to available empirical and analytically derived guidelines regarding optimal lower basin water levels, upper basin water levels and rotation rates for an Archimedes screw pump. Some differences are noted between recommended optimal conditions for full-size screws from the literature, and the optimum conditions found for the tested laboratory-size screw. These differences are consistent with expected effects of scaling between different size screws.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
Aspects of this work were financially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) program (Grant No. CRDPJ 433740-12) and Greenbug Energy Inc. (Delhi, ON, Canada). The assistance of Tony Bouk and Brian Weber of Greenbug Energy Inc. is gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 8 • August 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 10, 2019
Accepted: Mar 23, 2020
Published online: Jun 12, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Nov 12, 2020
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