The Fluid Effects That Kill Pumps

Three hydraulic effects that ruin a pump.

We collectively move incredible volumes of fresh water, drainage, and wastewater into, out of, and around our cities every day. And, we mostly do it using pumps. I love pumps. But, even though they are critical for the safety, health, and well-being of huge populations of people, there are a lot of things that can go wrong if not properly designed and operated.

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This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

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This video is sponsored by HelloFresh.
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Shutterstock, Pond5, and Videoblocks.
Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Producer/Host: Grady Hillhouse
Assistant Producer: Wesley Crump

[christheother]

I had a desk fan at a miserable job which I labeled plainly "THIS SUCKS" on one side and "THIS BLOWS" on the other.

[charli]

The “I love pumps” has “I love refrigerators” energy.

[NiIex]

It's amazing to me how you regularly manage to extract the gist from complex engineering fields and then present it in such a laid back and presentable fashion, disguising how much effort and research goes into each video. I salute you.

[SpadesNeil]

5:52 - "But it does make a bad sound when there isn't enough positive suction head at the inlet."

Pump: **UNHAPPY PUMP GARGLING**

[rodefshalom]

I like big pumps, and I cannot lie!
No infrastructure can deny…

[TracyNorrell]

Can you cover sewage treatment pants? I'm curious how they deal with solids in the pump paths.

[katie.on.fire.]

Wildland firefighter trick. You’ll often see an empty water or Gatorade bottle floating on the top of the portable tanks when we’re drafting water from them. It disrupts any vortex that starts to form, thus preventing loss of prime.

[BooBaddyBig]

Rockets often have vortexing problems in their propellent tanks particularly as the tanks empty. They often solve it with special vanes with carefully arranged patterns of holes in them that slow and break up the vortices and prevent gas ingress.

[IvanStepaniuk]

I live in The Netherlands and this subject really gets me pumped

[PGvisions]

The twinkle in his eye when he said "I love pumps" made me smile and laugh.

[HuskyKMA]

"Honey! The neighbors are pumping water up a ladder again!"

[CCWP]

Another great video! I like how you mentioned the depth of the pump suction piping, then almost immediately mentioned raw water intakes. As a water treatment plant operator, this is something we deal with first hand. Our source (raw) water intake pumps are set in a wet well that collects river sludge rather quickly. We do have this wet well cleaned annually, so we never have issues with the sludge reaching the pumps. But, if the pumps were mounted too low, it would easily start sucking in foreign objects until inevitable pump failure. We are able to get about 25, 000 hours out of these pumps with river conditions of 0-300 NTU, then they must be replaced. This typically costs around $50k to replace a pump, balance the shafts, and go through the motor. Anyway, I’ll stop rambling. Thank you for posting these great videos!

[orienv]

Aquariums:-
What I see: flora & fauna
What Grady sees: pumps, vortices & NPSH

[TheKazragore]

If anyone hasn't looked into it, check out the history of London's sewer pumping stations and the story behind the construction of that tunnel network. It's pretty incredible.

[fhavlak]

On scale models: There's a model of the entire Mississippi river system somewhere (now abandoned), and also one of the SF Bay / Sacramento Delta.

[RealHypeFox]

Reminds me of what my grandad used to tell me: “Oklahoma is so windy because Texas sucks and Kansas blows.” Lol!

[Angorek]

"Capable of lifting the equivalent of fully loaded Boeing 747 every second" - Ah yes, freedom units!

[givrally]

I clicked on the video so quickly it made a water hammer.

[Rayvan]

As a young civil engineer, I'd love someone like you as a mentor. The way you explain things, making them easy to understand is a skill! Another great video 👌🏼

[MrMattie]

These vortexes have interesting positive implementations too. Vortex Flow Control systems are used to have a fixed outflow of a storm water system regardless of the water pressure at the inflow. The higer the water rises, the bigger the vortex gets and the more air gets 'pumped' through the opening. Thus hindering the water and capping the outflow.
In Belgium we use these since we want to create buffers for storm water and waterway managers don't want to big of an inflow in their streams.