Design of a device for measuring pump performance in the fluid mechanics laboratory

An apparatus for measuring pump performance characteristics has been designed and tested. The benchtop device is portable, easy to use, is made of readily replaceable components, and gives reliable and repeatable results. It consists of a pump that moves water around a self-contained piping circuit. Appropriately instrumented, the apparatus provides readings of pump input torque, rotational speed, volume flow rate, and pressure rise across the pump. Reduction of data allows for construction of a pump performance map of total head versus flow rate, with efficiency determination. Dimensionless graphs of performance can also be constructed