Ching Pang, Alyssa Ju
Abstract:
AguaClara plants contain chemical dosage tanks that require water to make liquid chemical stocks. The AguaClara Vertical Ram Pump (ACVRP) is an innovation that elimantes the need for plant operators to manually displace water up to the dosage tanks. Water is pumped from a lower to higher elevation by harvesting kinetic energy from the treated water flowing out to the community's water distribution system. The design is a modification of the conventional ram pump that allows the waste water to be contained within the pump system due to the inline feature of ACVRP. Compared to a conventional ram pump, the ACVRP is more operator-friendly and requires lower capital cost. Teams from past semesters have determined that the previous version of the ACVRP was inefficient due to a significant amount of head loss. The goal of this summer was to reduce head loss in the design and to determine the efficiency of the improved ACVRP.
