Avoiding Cavitation

If the available system inlet pressure, also termed static pressure, falls below the required pump inlet pressure, suitable measures must be taken to achieve at least an equilibrium such as:
  • Increasing the available static pressure at the pump location (positioning the pump at a lower level, e.g. from a roof plant room into the basement to benefit from the increased static head from the higher water column. The pump performance remains unchanged).
  • Lowering the fluid temperature (reducing the vapour pressure pD).
  • Changing the pump characteristics (reducing the driven speed and/or different pump design with a lesser Pump NPSHrequired).

 

More articles on this topic

Pump Selection

Centrifugal pumps should be selected such that the specified System Duty Point is located on or as near as possible to the point of maximum efficiency (Pump Duty Point) of the max. speed H/Q-curve.

Read more