INTRODUCTION

A centrifugal pump is a rotating machine in which flow and pressure are generated dynamically. The inlet is not walled off from the outlet as is the case with positive displacement pumps, whether they are reciprocating or rotary in configuration. Rather, a centrifugal pump delivers useful energy to the fluid or "pumpage" largely through velocity changes that occur as this fluid flows through the impeller and the associated fixed passageways of the pump; that is, it is a "rotodynamic" pump. All impeller pumps are rotodynamic, including those with radial-flow, mixed-flow, and axial-flow impellers: the term "centrifugal pump" tends to encompass all rotodynamic pumps.

Although the actual flow patterns within a centrifugal pump are three-dimensional and unsteady in varying degrees, it is fairly easy, on a one-dimensional, steady-flow basis, to make the connection between the basic energy transfer and performance relationships and the geometry or what is commonly termed the "hydraulic design" (more properly the "fluid dynamical design") of impellers and stators or stationary passageways of these machines.

In fact, disciplined one-dimensional thinking and analysis enables one to deduce pump operational characteristics (for example, power and head versus flow rate) at both the optimum or design conditions and off-design conditions. This enables the designer and the user to judge whether a pump and the fluid system in which it is installed will operate smoothly or with instabilities. The user should then be able to understand the offerings of a pump manufacturer, and the designer...