Design, Simulation, and Experimental Validation of Thermally Infused Hydraulic Ram Pump

Hydraulic ram pump (HRP), also known as hydram, lifts water without using external power input. Its low performance combined with affordability of fuels has put this otherwise longstanding technology in the backburner of science and research for a long time, yielding to electric or fuel powered pumps. However, growing concerns about the impacts of fossil fuel use on the environment as well as the rising price of electricity has generated a renewed interest in such technology. The ram pump's operation in remote areas where power grid is not available adds research value on the technology. In this project, a novel approach, i.e., adding thermal energy to the flow to assist the water hammer pressure was modeled. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was conducted using ansys. The results were validated experimentally in a 32 mm (27 mm internal diameter) drive pipe and a supply head of 2.18 m ram pump. The Analytical approach was more conservative. The results between simulation and experiment were fairly consistent, with only 6.99% error for pressure, and 10.16% for flowrate. The results show that pressure increased from 183.33 kPa to 342.32 kPa when thermally assisted to reach 150 °C. The experimental discharge flow increased from 11.72 l/min to 16.41 l/min for the corresponding temperature, a 42.01% increase.