| The faucet we open to wash our hands or water our gardens is one end of a very large and complex system of piping; at the other end is usually a pump. Pumps fall into two major groups: rotodynamic pumps and positive
displacement pumps. Their names describe the method for moving a fluid.
Rotodynamic pumps are based on bladed impellers which rotate within the
fluid to cause an acceleration of the fluid and increase in the energy of the fluid. The purpose of the pump is to
convert this energy into pressure energy of the fluid resulting in flow through the
associated piping system. A positive displacement pump causes a liquid to move by trapping a
fixed amount of fluid and then forcing (displacing) that trapped volume
into the discharge pipe. The earliest pump was designed by Archimedes in the 3rd century AD and is known as the Archimedes screw pump. |
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