Performance Evaluation of a Hand pump with Provision of a Sealed Secondary Water Sump

Abstract

Nowadays, a large number of water lifting devices and pumps are available for lifting water or other liquids from lower elevation to higher elevation. However, none of these hand pumps use a secondary water sump or any other such kind of device which increases efficiency of commonly used hand pumps. Also, measurement of operating forces for the performance evaluation of hand pumps is often missing. In this study, a commonly used hand pump was fitted with a 54-liter capacity sealed secondary water sump. The secondary water sump is again linked with the shallow well water or aquifer water. It was estimated that the provision of secondary water sump fitted with a hand pump results in significant reduction in the input power. The performance on a hand pump when fitted with a secondary water sump found that there is a significant reduction in the input power; thus it requires lesser operating force.  The experiments also revealed that use of larger the capacity of secondary water sump requires lesser operating force of the pump. The output powers in both the cases viz. with and without a secondary water sump are found to be approximately same. The provision of secondary water sump fitting with a hand pump thereby provides more comfort in operating the hand pumps.