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Pump Performance Curve Stability Analysis

The document discusses stability issues in pump performance curves, highlighting the difference between stable and unstable operating points. It explains that a falling performance curve can lead to instability, while rising sections are stable. The preference in engineering is for stable operating points to avoid sudden changes due to perturbations.

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Abdelmalek Boulahia
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3 views1 page

Pump Performance Curve Stability Analysis

The document discusses stability issues in pump performance curves, highlighting the difference between stable and unstable operating points. It explains that a falling performance curve can lead to instability, while rising sections are stable. The preference in engineering is for stable operating points to avoid sudden changes due to perturbations.

Uploaded by

Abdelmalek Boulahia
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Notes on Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, and Gas Dynamics

(4) Stability issues become significant when the pump has a flat or falling performance curve, which is
defined as a performance curve in which H decreases as Q decreases (Figure 12.35). For example,
Figure 12.36 shows the system curve intersecting the pump curve at two di↵erent flow rates. The
flow rate in the falling portion of the pump curve (the left point in the figure) is unstable since a
slight perturbation results in the flow rate diverging way from the point. The operating point in
the rising portion of the pump curve (right point in the figure), however, is stable since conditions
resulting from a small perturbation from this point will drive the flow rate back to the operating
point.

Figure 12.35. An illustration of a “falling” pump performance curve.

Figure 12.36. An illustration showing stable and unstable operating points.

Figure 12.37 shows a more complex pump curve with two rising sections and one falling section.
The operating points in the rising sections are stable while the operating point in the falling portion
is unstable. Usually this type of situation is undesirable since in engineering we typically prefer to
have an unambiguous, stable operating point rather than the possibility that the operating point
might suddenly change if a sufficiently large perturbation occurs.

C. Wassgren 1138 2021-12-15

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