Experimental Investigation of Archimedes Screw Pump

Abstract

There is essentially no experimental data on Archimedes screw pump performance available in the literature that is sufficiently detailed for model validation. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory scale (0.3-m diameter) Archimedes screw pump to characterize the pumping efficiency of the screw pump at various inlet basin water levels and screw rotation speeds. The results provide new insights into the effect of inlet and outlet basin level on screw pump efficiency. The flow rate of water pumped is proportional to the rotation speed of the screw, and increases with increasing inlet basin depth until the basin level exceeds that needed to fully fill the screw without overflowing. Comparisons are made to available empirical and analytically derived guidelines regarding optimal lower basin water levels, upper basin water levels and rotation rates for an Archimedes screw pump. Some differences are noted between recommended optimal conditions for full-size screws from the literature, and the optimum conditions found for the tested laboratory-size screw. These differences are consistent with expected effects of scaling between different size screws.