Poorly Designed Pumping and Piping System and Its Negative Effects

October 12, 2022

On a pump used in industry, the pipes' design and position are of the utmost significance. Your pump's limited lifespan and subpar performance may result from a poor design on the manufacturer's part.

In earlier blogs, we discussed why your pump's suction pipe is vital and the standard recommendations that various pump manufacturers provide for suction lines. The purpose of the pipe is straightforward: it must transport the liquid to and from the pump. It is possible that the performance of the system will not be impacted if the piping configuration is correctly constructed. However, improper pipe design can lead to a variety of different sorts of damage as well as poor performance.

Let's go through these in more detail.

Inverted-U Piping Creates Air Pockets

One of the most annoying and flawed types of design is one in which the pipe on the suction side of the pump is shaped like an inverted U. This design is perhaps the most aggravating. Again, the purpose of the pipe is to facilitate the movement of the liquid or other comparable material along its route. The ability of pumps to move material might be jeopardised if the pipe that brings the material to the pump is not installed appropriately.

The pipe should ideally have a downward slope, but if your pump has a static lift, the slope should be in the other direction, upward. Unnecessary twists in the pipe, especially those that need u-shaped fittings, can produce pockets in which there is no liquid but trapped air. These pockets will be caused when the piping is not laid out properly. When anything like this occurs, the vapour is produced, and it is this vapour that moves through your pump rather than liquid. Next, as the flow hits the impeller, which drives it into the delivery pipe, it implodes. This is what then occurs. This leads to a potentially dangerous situation that is known as suction cavitation.

Suction Cavitation Is Affected By Air Pockets

Cavitation refers to the process in which vapour bubbles are created and implode. This implosion of bubbles brings energy, which can cause the pump housing to become damaged at the intake if it is not protected. In the long run, this will also result in real pieces being removed from the impeller.

When you hear rumbling sounds, such as shoes bouncing around inside a clothes dryer, you'll know you're succumbing to cavitation because this is one of the telltale signs. The pipe itself would need to be redesigned to correct this issue so that it is now perfectly straight on its way to the impeller. There should be no elbows on the pump side that draws in liquid for suction, and the piping going to the impeller should be straight for at least five pipe diameters.

Trouble Comes From Incorrectly Placed "T" Fittings

A "T" fitting, which produces an angle of 90 degrees, is one more method that may be utilised to induce a liquid to go in a different direction. In the same way that a U-shape shouldn't be positioned just before the pump's inlet, they shouldn't be either.

Cavitation may be considered a more extreme form of turbulence inside the pump. In unusual circumstances, you could experience something called discharge cavitation. This is a situation in which the discharge liquid—that is, the liquid flowing out of the pump—is at too high a pressure. As a result, the liquid does not flow out of the pump but continues circulating inside it. This causes the pump housing and the impeller tips to become worn down.

You may get a sense of how crucial it is to have plumbing for your pump that is correctly built and installed from what you've read here.

If you are experiencing any problems with the normal operation of your pump, please get in touch with the Parker Pumps team so that they may analyse your system.

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