Design analysis, installation and performance evaluation of hydraulic ram pump system with a modified waste valve

Abstract

Hydraulic ram pump (also called hydram) is one of the oldest mechanical devices used for water lifting. It is a device that works automatically without relying on electricity or diesel fuel instead, it utilizes the principle of water hammer effect to pump a fraction of water from the source to the desired elevation. A hydraulic ram pump has two moving parts which are the waste valve and delivery valve. As a lot of studies had been carried out investigating parameters possibly affecting the performance of a hydraulic ram pump, this study aimed to design and fabricate a modified waste valve for a hydraulic ram pump with parts made from locally available off-the-shelf materials. The constructional design of the waste valve was evaluated regarding its effect on the whole hydraulic ram pump’s system efficiency given the uncontrollable parameters present in the target area of installation. Results revealed that varying the height of the waste valve’s stroke significantly affected the ram pump’s delivery flow rate thus affecting the overall efficiency. Furthermore, results showed that for the modified design of the waste valve, having a 4 in. height for the stroke gave the optimum ram pump’s system efficiency at 84.3 %.