puricarexfiles: HYDRAULIC RAM - The hydraulic ram uses the water hammer effect to develop pressure that allows a portion of the input water that powers the pump to be lifted to a point higher than where the water originally started. Apart from the kinetic energy of the water, no other source of power is needed.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

HYDRAULIC RAM - The hydraulic ram uses the water hammer effect to develop pressure that allows a portion of the input water that powers the pump to be lifted to a point higher than where the water originally started. Apart from the kinetic energy of the water, no other source of power is needed.

Hydraulic

Ram

How does an hydraulic ram pump work?

A hydraulic ram pump is a water pump powered by water with a height difference.

In areas where natural flows exist with a height difference of the water over a small distance, hydraulic ram pumps can be used to transport water to higher grounds without using electricity or fuel.

The hydraulic ram uses the water hammer effect to develop pressure that allows a portion of the input water that powers the pump to be lifted to a point higher than where the water originally started.

Apart from the kinetic energy of the water, no other source of power is needed.

The hydraulic ram pump was invented in 1772 and widely used in the 19th century, but was side-tracked by the advent of the coal-powered steam engine and later by diesel powered pumps.

In recent years the hydraulic ram pump has seen a renewed interest, because it is powered by sustainable energy, and can be produced locally.

The waste valve can be a spring-operated normally-open valve that closes when the flow velocity generates sufficient drag.

The water in the drive pipe, which is long and rigid (steel pipes will generate higher pressure than pvc), has gathered significant momentum (p=m*v) by that time.

When the valve closes, that momentum generates pressure, slamming open the check valve and compressing the air in the reservoir.

The check valve closes again, the compressed air expands, pushing water up the delivery pipe. The waste valve reopens and the process repeats.

The air reservoir stores the energy, absorbs the pressure pulses, and provides continuous flow at the delivery pipe.

It's comparable to a smoothing capacitor: can handle any incoming current, absorbs voltage (pressure) peaks, and delivers the energy during the whole cycle.

Without the air, every time the waste valve closes, the two water columns are in direct contact, one at full speed, the other at rest.

That will cause either large pressure peaks (when they meet head on), or large movement of the pump. At 30,000 times a day, they may not last very long.

But the fundamental difference between a pump with air reservoir and one without is the efficiency: without reservoir, energy is transferred by a perfectly inelastic collision: the water in the drive pipe and the water in the delivery pipe have the same velocity after the collision.

Not only is that the collision where most energy is lost, the mass in the drive pipe is also the largest mass, and will keep most of its energy after the collision.

With a reservoir, most of the energy of the drive mass is transferred to the reservoir, and all that energy is used to pump the water in the delivery pipe.

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/264398/how-does-an-hydraulic-ram-pump-work

http://akvopedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_Ram_pump

http://www.meribah-ram-pump.com

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