Human-powered impellar pump question

[bd103dall]

I am part of a humanitarian group which is designing an irrigation pump for farmers in Malawi. The pump itself is powered by an individual pedaling a bicycle, where an additional chain is connected from the rear bicycle gears to a gear around a shaft (a few feet behind the pump). The shaft then rotates and in turn powers an impellar pump which pumps the water through a hose (impellar is a propellar designed for water that as it turns pumps water).

Does anyone know a company that designs impellar pumps that work with the low power input of our device (approximately 1/8th a horsepower)? Most pumps that I have found are designed to be used in conjunction with a motor which has a much higher power output and in turn much higher rpms than are possible from our human powered device.

Any help is appreciated, thank you.

 

[Artisi]

BigInch
Thanks for the last posting re human output against pump performance - very informative and useful. However, the data you have found appears to be based on maximum output for a human whereas we need to be more conservative in the expectations.

I think in the situation for this application we would be happy with 4-5 l/m @ 5-6 m head something that is capable for 1 or 2 people working together for a few hours.

bd103dall
I will contact you with few more questions as this project is of interest to me as I am now retired with time on my hands and have some background in aid projects - although this has been at the top end of the spectrum where money wasn't a problem with most of it going on consultants - but that's another story.

 

[BigInch]

I didn't know if the application was for drinking water or small scale irrigation. These curves are for centrifugals anyway. As was said above, a piston pump may be more appropriate. They are power limited too, so easier to specify the correct cylinder size and strokes.

Find my e-mail in the contacts section of my webpage, drop me your address and I'll send you lower flowrate/higher head numbers at maybe half the power output.

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com