Reading The Pump Curve - Intro To Pumps

Reading the Pump Curve - Intro To Pumps
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Common Centrifugal Pump Designs
NPSHr: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?
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Reading
Reading the
the Pump
Pump Curve
Curve
Defining the Basics: Volutes &

Impellers
In years past making a pump selection meant sitting down with large printed
NPSHr: What Is It and Why Does It

Matter?
catalogs and flipping through them until you reached a pump curve that fit the
What are the Main Parts of Every

Centrifugal Pump?
projects hydraulic requirements. Today this process is made much easier through
the use of electronic pump curve catalogs. One of the most well-known developers
of electronic pump catalogs is Engineered Software and their pump selection
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software pump-flo. All of the curves in this article were generated in their
Why Your Pump Company MUST
Be Online
web-based pump selection software.

A pump curve provides a wealth of information regarding the capabilities of a
Making a Selection the Old-Fashioned

Way
pump. At it most basic level a pump curve is a graphical representation of the

performance characteristics of a pump. Information is plotted on an x-y graph
The Case for Contractor-Selected

Pumps
The Case for Owner-Selected
Pumps
where the x-axis is measured in units of flow and the y-axis is measured in units of head, power, and NPSHr.
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For the sake of example, today were going to look at a selection made for the following design condition: 1,000 GPM at 100 ft.
Here is a possible pump selection that might be a good fit for that operating condition.
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Composite Pump Performance Curve
Pump Performance Curve: Head, Flow and Efficiency

The first piece of information provided by a pump curve is the flow that the pump will develop at any given head. The curve that
provides that information is called the pump performance curve. Some pump curves only provide a single pump performance
curve, but most will provide the maximum performance the pump is capable of achieving with a full-trim impeller, the minimum
performance the pump is capable of achieving with a minimum-trim impeller, and the performance provided by the design-trim
impeller. The design-trim impeller is the impeller trim the pump selection software has selected as the closest fit to the design
condition provided. In this case the design-trim is 16.3125, the max-trim is 17 and the minimum-trim is 15.
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Considering the design trim curve we see that at zero

flow, also known as shutoff, the pump will develop about
130 ft of head. This is the head the pump would develop
if it were operating against a closed valve. Keep in mind
that the actual pressure experienced between the pump
and the closed valve might exceed this value because a
pump ADDS head to the liquid being pumped. In other
words, if this pump were operating at shutoff with
suction pressure of 20 feet the total head experienced at
the pump discharge flange would be 150 ft (20 ft + 130
Pump Performance Curve
ft). So considering the design trim impeller we see that

shutoff occurs at about 130 ft, the design condition falls
very close to the pumps best-efficiency-point (BEP), and the pump will operate down to approximately 60 ft of head and
produce a flow of approximately 1380 GPM at 60 ft. The maximum and minimum trim curves also tell us the possible conditions
that the pump could be modified to meet in the future by installing an impeller of a different trim.
In addition to head and flow most pump performance curves will also provide efficiency information. A pumps efficiency is the
relationship between the power required to drive the pump at a given operating condition and the water horsepower being
created by the pump. If a pump were 100% efficient then the input power required would be equal to the water horsepower
being generated by the pump. However, since no pump is 100% efficient every pump will require more input power than it will
generate in water horsepower. In the case of this pump the best-efficiency-point falls at approximately 1075 GPM at 95 Ft, and
efficiency at BEP is 84.1%.
Special attention should be paid to the location of BEP relative to the operating condition. Pumps run best at or near BEP. For
this reason the Hydraulics Institute has defined a pumps Preferred Operating Region (POR) as flows from 70% to 120% of flow
at BEP for most centrifugal pumps. This would mean that the POR for this pump would be from approximately 750 GPM to 1290
GPM (70% to 120% of 1075 GPM). For some pumps with high specific speed impellers the POR is a more-restrictive 85% to
110% of BEP. It is best to select a pump that will operate most of the time in the POR since this will have implications for pump
life and power consumption.
There is another region of operation that is defined by the pump manufacturer. This is the Allowable Operating Region (AOR)
and is made up of the portion of the curve shaded in light yellow. This is the region that the pump manufacturer has
determined comprises all of the points that this pump can operate at continuously. While it is preferable to select pumps to
operate within the POR, pumps should always be selected to operate within the AOR without exception. Very short-term
operation outside of the AOR might be acceptable, but the pump manufacturer should be consulted before selecting a pump
that will see even intermittent operation outside the confines of the AOR.
The pump performance curve above has two more items which should be mentioned. First, the red line on the left hand side of
the pump curve is the Minimum Continuous Stable Flow (MCSF) line. This is the point beyond which the pump manufacturer
has determined the pump should not be allowed to operate for any extended period of time. Second, the blue curve beginning
at 0 GPM and 0 Ft and extending through the design condition is the System Curve and represents the operation of the system
in which the pump is being applied. This curve can be manipulated by manually entering data points and is particularly useful
when evaluating the variable-speed performance of a pump.
NPSHr Curve
The next part of the pump curve is the Net Positive
Suction Head Required (NPSHr) curve. The NPSHr curve
provides information about the suction characteristics of
the pump at different flows. The x-axis is still measured in
flow units, but the y-axis is now measured in feet of
Net Positive Suction Head Required Curve
NPSHr. Each point along the curve identifies the NPSHr

required by the pump at that flow to avoid cavitation
issues that would be damaging to the pump and would have a negative impact on overall pump performance.
Looking back at our example design flow of 1,000 GPM we can see that this pump will require approximately 7 ft of NPSHr at
that condition. A typical safety margin between Net Positive Suction Head Available (NPSHa) and required (NPSHr) is 5 ft. So in
this case it would generally be recommended that this pump not be applied in applications where NPSHa at the design flow of
1,000 GPM is less than approximately 12 ft.
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Generally speaking NPSHr does not vary dramatically between variations in impeller trim which is why we do not see separate
curves for the minimum and maximum impeller trims. Those curves are actually present, but they are overlaid by the
design-trim NPSHr curve.
Power Curve
The final portion of the pump curve is the power curve.
Once again the x-axis is measured in units of flow, but
the y-axis is now measured in power units. In this case
the unit of measurement is horsepower. This curve tells
us how much power the pump will demand at any
Power Curve
particular flow point. This information is useful in

ensuring the selected motor is suitably sized, and is also useful when calculating power consumption costs.
At our design flow, 1,000 GPM we can see that power demand is approximately 30 HP and that power demand is greatest at
approximately 1,300 GPM. Based on this information, if the pump were to be driven by an electric motor, most pump
manufacturers would recommend that the next largest motor rating be used. In this case that would be a motor rated for 40
HP.
Power demands do vary considerably depending on the impeller trim which is why separate power curves for the minimum and
maximum impeller trims can also be seen in the power curve. This information is useful if the customer would like to size the
drive unit to allow a future increase in capacity without requiring replacement of the drive unit. In that case the customer could
chose to size the drive unit for the maximum trim impeller power curve, and at a later date the capacity of the pump could be
increased by installing a maximum trim impeller without requiring replacement of the drive unit. In the case of our example
pump curve the motor required by the design trim impeller will be adequate to cover the power demanded by the maximum
trim impeller, but this will not always be the case.
Summary
When combined these three curves are called the composite pump curve, and they provide the information we need to
determine if a particular pump is a suitable selection for the hydraulic requirements of an application. The information provided
by each part of the curve is critical to ensuring the pump is a good fit for the application hydraulics.
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Common Centrifugal Pump Designs
NPSHr: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?
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Reading the Pump Curve - Intro To Pumps

An I nt ro duc ti o n t o Cen t ri fugal Pu mp F un damen t als

Common Centrifugal Pump Designs

NPSHr: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?

Most Popular Articles

Defining the Basics: Volutes &

NPSHr: What Is It and Why Does It

What are the Main Parts of Every

Most Recent Articles

web-based pump selection software.

Making a Selection the Old-Fashioned

pump. At it most basic level a pump curve is a graphical representation of the

The Case for Contractor-Selected

Subscribe to this website

Enter your email address to subscribe to this

Composite Pump Performance Curve

Pump Performance Curve: Head, Flow and Efficiency