Side channel pump

[hemvig]

Does anyone has experience with Side channel pump, If so what are there advantages and disadvantages.


I have high pressure application (17387 KPA) or 127 m3/hr flow and head of 4200m, pumping low specific gravity liquid (0.27). Are these pumps suitable to handle high pressures?

 

[Artisi]

Guess the second place to check after asking here is with the manufacturers of side channel pumps, followed by google as there seems to be plenty of information available for you to read.

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)

 

[micalbrch]

The advantages of a side channel pump are:
- self priming
- their capabilty to pump a high gas content (up to 50 %)
- very low NPSH values
- rather steep Q-H-curve (which does not have to be an advantage)

Their main disadvantages:
- fluid must not contain any solids
- fluid remains in the pump when pump is stopped (that can be a disadvantage depending upon the fluid)

4200 m head seams a bit too high for a side channel pump. A triple screw pump should be able to handle that flow and pressure or a multistage centrifugal pump or a plunger pump.

 

[GaTechTheron]

hemvig,

The side channel utilizes a different type of flow in the pump's volute. As the impeller turns, the fluid rotations in a circular motion parallel to a the plane tangent to the impeller tip.

1. Side Channel Pumps have a fully open impeller, and it has been my experience that this is a less efficient pump.

2. The pumps I have experience with use impellers that are hydraulically balanced on the shaft in the axial direction. When you are operating somewhere on the curve, the pump runs great. However, if the pump is ever operated at shut off (or run out) the impellers will not be balanced and there will be large force pressing the impeller into the side of the case. Basically, you can burn up a pump rather easily.

3. Finally, I have only seen these pumps built with very cheap construction. They have a radially split design similar to a tie-rod multistage pump.

4. Advantages: It is a cheap pump and it can pump fluids with high % entrained gases.

If you have the budget, I would look more toward a BB3.