Consumption of Irrigation Pumps Pumping Water with a High Content of Mechanical Impurities

Abstract

The water pumped by reclamation stations of the Republic of Uzbekistan contains many mechanical impurities. This negatively affects the operation of pumping units. There is a decrease in the operating parameters of the pumping unit and the associated increase in electricity consumption. Analysis of the alluvial regime of the main water sources of large pumping stations shows that the sediment concentration can reach values of 15-20 kg/m3 and, on average, up to 8-10 kg/m3 (i.e., exceed the permissible values according to the technical requirements for centrifugal pumps by 2-3 times). Based on the consideration of a two-phase liquid model (pure water and mechanical impurities) and formulas for determining the useful power, a dependence is derived to determine the magnitude of the increase in power consumption. According to this dependence, a graph of the dependence of the increase in the value of the required useful power depending on the concentration of mechanical impurities in the pumped water is constructed, which can be applied in practice during the operation of irrigation pumping stations. The results of a quantitative analysis of the influence of the content of mechanical impurities in the pumped water on the value of the pump's useful power showed that with average turbidity of the pumped water of 10 kg/m3, the overspending of electricity would be 1.75%. This is of great practical importance for the machine water lifting of the Republic of Uzbekistan (the main consumer of electricity in the agricultural sector), and the results can be used to develop an energy-saving strategy in the field of operation of irrigation pumping stations.