Experimental Study on Series Operation of Sliding Vane Pump and Centrifugal Pump

A platform for sliding vane pump and centrifugal pump tests is installed to study the series operation of them under different characteristics of pipeline. Firstly, the sliding vane pump and the centrifugal pump work independently, and the performance is recorded. Then, the two types of pumps are combined together, with the sliding vane pump acting as the feeding pump. Comparison is made between the performance of the independently working pump and the performance of series operation pump. Results show that the system flow rate is determined by the sliding vane pump. In order to ensure the stability of the series operation pumping system, the energy consumption required by the pipeline under the system flow should be greater than the pressure energy centrifugal pump can generate. Otherwise, the centrifugal pump can not operate stably, with reflux, swirl, gas-liquid two-phase flow in the runner and strong vibration and noise. The sliding vane pump can be in serial operation with the centrifugal pump under limited conditions. 1. Introduction In china, some oil devices are equipped with sliding vane pumps (such as the fixed refueling vehicles), and some are equipped with centrifugal pumps (such as the delivery pumps in oil pipeline). In order to complete the mission of transporting oil for emergency, there is a strong demand for combining these equipments together under current equipment system, thus leading to the series operation of the two types of pumps. However, the working principles of sliding vane pump and centrifugal pump are completely different. The former belongs to positive displacement pumps, while the latter belongs to dynamic pumps [1, 2]. The series, parallel, and series-parallel operations of centrifugal pumps are widely used [3–5]. Relatively, there are rare reports and research literatures on the series operation of sliding vane pumps and the two types of pumps. According to the working performance of sliding vane pump, Daniel and Wordley [5] put forth the concept that it is not necessary to run pumps in series because a positive displacement pump will be self-compensating for system pressure and will only move a specific number at a given rpm, besides there is no advantage to place positive displacement pumps in series when they are in close proximity to each other. Karassik and Messina [1] presented an idea on the issue of series operation of positive displacement pump and centrifugal pump that it would be most unusual to encounter a positive displacement pump feeding into the suction of a centrifugal pump because of the high pressure