Pump possible cavitation problem
Pump possible cavitation problem
(OP)
Hello All,
So, I was informed that putting a wall mount heat exchanger that consists of a motor, pump, filter and a heat exchanger that runs at 8.5 gpm would cause cavitation of the pump, since the gearbox only holds 4 gallons of oil (plus the oil that would compensate for the volume of the new heat exchanger).
I tried googling the possible causes of the phenomenon, but was unable to find any info. I would imagine that the pump runs so fast that it starts pulling air bubbles into the fluid. However, is there like a calculation or a website that shows more info regarding this matter?
Thank you all.
So, I was informed that putting a wall mount heat exchanger that consists of a motor, pump, filter and a heat exchanger that runs at 8.5 gpm would cause cavitation of the pump, since the gearbox only holds 4 gallons of oil (plus the oil that would compensate for the volume of the new heat exchanger).
I tried googling the possible causes of the phenomenon, but was unable to find any info. I would imagine that the pump runs so fast that it starts pulling air bubbles into the fluid. However, is there like a calculation or a website that shows more info regarding this matter?
Thank you all.





RE: Pump possible cavitation problem
RE: Pump possible cavitation problem
If you really have cavitation happening, that means a bit of your fluid is changing from liquid to gas phase and then quickly back into liquid.
If you want to calculate this, you'll need the vapor pressure, density, and viscosity of you liquid at operating temperature, and a bunch of info about the system configuration. (pipe sizes, bends roughness, etc.)
Cavitation happens in pumps that have insufficient NPSH available or run out at the extremes of the pump curve. A good reference for this would be HI 9.6.1, though most major pump manufacturers have a guidebook giving a lot of the same info. I just don't like to rely on manufacturer info too much.
Example: http://net.grundfos.com/doc/webnet/mining/_downloa...
I'm assuming this is a centrifugal pump of some kind.