The best way to arrange a discharge header 1

[fabuara]

In the case of a discharge header of a system of pumps in parallel (a total of five centrifugal pumps in the present case), must the outlet piping to the process be positioned after the last pump or can it start immediately before the last pump? By adopting the last arrangement, would there be loss in the flow capacity, some turbulence, or even loss of energy or a possible unbalancing of one or more pumps?

 

[BigInch]

You should always seek a hydraulic balance through symetry. Put one pump discharging to the center of the header, another pair at the 1/4 points and the last two on the ends, with the header feeding process from its center point. A linear arrangement into a constant diameter & wall thickness header feeding process at one end will put the first pump at a higher head and lower flow operating point, the last pump at lowest head and highest flow, with all other pumps in a successively nonlinear progression in between as flow from each pump adds to the next and increases pressure drop dramatically in each segment of header, the last having 5 times the flow of the first. For a linear arrangement it might make more sense to vary the header diameter, then it really wouldn't be a header, would it? It would be a series of increasing diameter pipe segments.

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"The problem isn't finding the solution, its trying to get to the real question." BigInch

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