A recent survey of pump design engineers at consulting and original equipment manufacturing companies has found that improving impeller designs for better efficiency was very important for the majority of the respondents—84 out of 90.
The 2012 Pump Design Survey was conducted by UK-based ADT, a global leader in the development of advanced turbomachinery design methods and the TURBOdesign Suite. The survey set out identify opportunities for using 3D inverse design technology in pump designs. In response to the survey results, ADT has launched its ADT Pump Efficiency Initiative to provide pump design services applying TURBOdesign Suite for systematic pump optimization.
“As any pump designer knows, the impeller plays a key role in pump system operation and has the largest impact on the overall system efficiency,” said Mehrdad Zangeneh, professor of thermofluids at University College London and founding director of ADT. “With TURBOdesign Suite, there are some exciting opportunities that designers can leverage for systematic improvement of pump stage performance.”
Pertinent findings from the ADT 2012 Pump Design Survey include:
- 84 of 90 respondents stated that improving impeller design for better efficiency is very important.
- 79 of 90 respondents stated that improvement to pump stage efficiency is very important.
- 65 of 90 respondents stated that improvement to pump stage cavitation performance is very important.
- Just 50 of 90 respondents stated that reduction in manufacturing costs was very important.
“It is clear to us why impeller efficiency is so important to pump manufacturers,” added Zangeneh. “Reports show that in some industries energy and maintenance costs can account for up to 70 percent of the total pump life cycle costs. Considerable savings can be achieved with improved impeller designs.”
According to Pumpife Cycle Costs: A Guide to LLC Analysis for Pumping Systems, by the Hydraulic Institute, Europump and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT), pumping systems account for nearly 20 percent of the world’s electrical energy demand, and from 25 to 50 percent of the energy usage in certain industrial plant operations.
