Centrifugal Pumps

Life is linked to liquid transport, and so are vital segments of economy. Pumping devices - be it the human heart, a boiler feeder or the cooling-water pump of a motorcar - are always part of a more or less complex system where pump failure can lead to severe consequences. To select, operate or even design a pump, some understanding of the system is helpful, if not essential. Depending on the appli- tion, a centrifugal pump can be a simple device which could be built in a garage with a minimum of know-how - or a high-tech machine requiring advanced skills, sophisticated engineering and extensive testing. When attempting to describe the state-of-the-art in hydraulic engineering of centrifugal pumps, the focus is nec- sarily on the high-tech side rather than on less-demanding services even though these make up the majority of pump applications. Centrifugal pump technology involves a broad spectrum of flow phenomena which have a profound impact on design and operation through the achieved ef- ciency, the stability of the head-capacity characteristic, vibration, noise, com- nent failure due to fatigue, as well as material damage caused by cavitation, - dro-abrasive wear or erosion corrosion. Operation and life cycle costs of pumping equipment depend to a large extent on how well these phenomena and the inter- tion of the pump with the system are understood.

Dr.-Ing. Johann F. Gülich (1939), MS in Mechanical Engineering from the TU Hannover (Germany), PhD from the TU Darmstadt. Professional carreer: Project engineer in the nuclear power plant division of Siemens, Erlangen, Germany. Since 1966 with Sulzer Winterthur (Switzerland): Starting as development engineer in the nuclear reactor design; for 10 years head of the team 'Thermohydraulics' responsible for the thermal and hydraulic design of steam generators and heat exchangers for nuclear power stations; for 23 years head of the team responsible for the hydraulic development of centrifugal pumps, during some years also responsible for the mechanical development group. Since retirement pump consultant. JF Gülich has published numerous contributions and holds several patents on centrifugal pumps and steam generators for nuclear power plants.