Airlift Pumping Research Articles

A preliminary experimental investigation into the air-lift pumping of shear-thinning suspensions

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Maintenance of Pumps, Motors and Controls

THE three pumping systems in common use, that of the turbine deep well pump is commonest. The plunger pump has done worthy service in supplying small communities and this pump still has a field, even though the use of the deep well centrifugal pump is expanding. Also still in use are some air lift systems used to bring the water to a surface reservoir. From the reservoir the water is pumped by centrifugal pumps into an elevated standpipe. The distinct advantage of air lift pumping is that no moving parts are below the ground surface. Also all operating machinery for a number of quite widely scattered wells can be located in one plant with air transmission lines to the various wells and the flow of the water can be controlled by the engineer in the plant. The equipment consists of an air compressor located at any convenient point where installation expense and transmission losses are not too great, an air receiver, air transmission pipes to the wells, the pumps proper and the water piping and storage system. It is to the advantage of the water works operator to familiarize himself as much as possible with these different types of pumping systems. This paper will give only a general outline of maintenance. We are not here concerned with the design of a water system because, in most cases, that has already been completed when the operator appears on the job. Engineers, who design and build these various plants, know that the success or failure of their work depends largely on the skill of the man who is selected to operate the plant. From the time the plant is turned over to the operator, the responsibility to supply water at the lowest possible cost rests upon the operator.

Electrification of the Lafayette, Indiana, Water Supply

The principal business section of Lafayette is located on the low table land adjacent to the Wabash River. The city has gradually grown, however, until a large part of the residential district is located on the high table land and known as the Columbian Park section. Many years ago two steam driven pumps each of 6,000,000 gallons daily displacement were installed in what is known as the Canal Street pumping station, pumping by suction from wells located in the channel of the Wabash River, serving the customers on the lower level of Lafayette. The surplus water from these pumps supplied a reservoir of four and one-half million gallons capacity and located at Columbian Park, therefore, furnishing adequate pressure at all times to the principal section on the lower levels of the city. The upper level of Lafayette was served by a steam operated pump in the Columbian Park pumping station located adjacent to the reservoir. There being no elevated storage tank on the Columbian Park system it was necessary that this pump be operated continuously. In 1912 the writer recommended that the city sink wells near the Canal Street pumping station and install an air lift pumping system. These wells and the air lift pumping system were installed, the water being delivered from the wells into a receiving basin constructed some forty feet in diameter and located on the same level and near to the Canal Street pumping station. A short time after the steam driven air lift system was installed three of the wells were equipped with motor driven deep well pumps of the impeller type for the purpose, if possible, of reducing the cost of pumping.

Air Lift Pumping and Water Purification

This paper is not written to discuss the principles of air-lift pumping, but it is advisable to call attention at the outset to the necessity, if success is to be attained, of choosing correctly the diameters of the water and air pipes for different lifts and submergences, and of obtaining a complete, intimate mixture of the air and water at the foot piece. If an air lift plant is properly designed and constructed it furnishes water continuously without interruption for a long period. For example, at Maywood, a suburb of Chicago, there is an air lift plant furnishing 700 gallons per minute from a single well, with a lift of over 300 feet. The compressor has been running twenty-four hours daily for four years, without other interruption than a stop of a few minutes each day for examination and occasionally for some adjustment. There has been no expense whatever for repairs. There are occasions where the air lift can be used as an auxiliary to a high duty suction plant pumping from deep wells, as at Clinton, 111., something over a year ago. There the water is obtained by suction from deep wells. For ordinary purposes a sufficient amount is delivered by this method, but for peak loads in the summer and in case of fire the supply was not sufficient. The water is drawn from half a dozen wells having a surface flow of limited volume. These are connected so as to flow into a surface reservoir, or may be direct-connected to the mains by means of suction pumps. In order to be able to meet the heavy drafts, three of the wells were connected with the air lift system arranged to discharge into the reservoir, using the suction piping as a gravity flow line. One of the 8-inch wells had a natural artesian flow of about 150 gallons per minute. When under suction from the pumps, the pull-down was 20 feet, increasing the flow to 500 gallons per minute. With