How to Select the Right Centrifugal Pump

About the Book

Choosing a centrifugal pump from the countless options available can be daunting, but someone has to make the decision. Many factors -such as the required flow, differential pressure, suction conditions, etc.- must be weighed against the capital costs and cost of energy for the pumps considered. To determine the right pump, you must consider the overall cost of ownership, which includes capital cost, operating costs, and maintenance cost. What good is a low cost pump if it is inefficient or if is costly to maintain? The selection methodology offered in this book focuses mainly on hydraulic design considerations, but it also touches on mechanical design details. Analyzing basic pump hydraulic parameters allows you to quickly determine if a centrifugal pump makes sense for your particular application. If you do decide a centrifugal pump will work for your application, then you need to be able to evaluate the various bids returned by pump manufacturers. A complete chapter is devoted to tabulating quotes from pump manufacturers in order to properly evaluate their bids and select the best overall option.

About the Author

Robert X. Perez has thirty years of rotating equipment experience in the petrochemical industry. He earned a BSME degree from Texas A&M University (College Station) and an MSME degree from the University of Texas (Austin), and he is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Texas. Mr. Perez served as an adjunct professor at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, where he developed and taught the engineering technology rotating equipment course. He authored Operator’s Guide to Centrifugal Pumps (Xlibris) in 2008 and coauthored Is My Machine OK?” (Industrial Press) with Andy Conkey in 2011. In 2013, he completed writing Illustrated Dictionary of Essential Process Machinery Terms (Diesel Publications) with the help of several other contributors. This dictionary has been well received by the community of rotating equipment professionals. In 2014, he coauthored Operator’s Guide to Rotating Equipment (Authorhouse) with Julien Lebeu. He has also written numerous machinery reliability articles for numerous technical conferences and magazines.