Study on the performance characteristics of centrifugal pump with drag-raducing surfactant additives

The performance characteristics of centrifugal pump were measured experimentally making use of tap water and drag-reducing surfactant (Octadecyl dimethyl amine oxide (OB-8)) solutions with four different concentrations (2×10^-4,5×10^-4, 9×10^-4,1.5×10^-3), under four different rotating speeds of the pump (1500 r/min,2000 r/min,2500 r/min and 2900 r/min). The experimental results show that the total pump heads become higher and increase with surfactant solution concentrations, while pump efficiency also increases with the surfactant solutions concentration, but the shaft power for surfactant solutions cases decreases. There is an optimal temperature of surfactant solution, which maximizes the pump efficiency. It can be clearly seen that there is a distinct deviation of the running state of the tested pump between the surfactant solution and tap water cases.