2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Pumping is ubiquitous in the chemical processing industry, and many Chemical Engineering Unit Operations Laboratories include pumping among the experiments operated by undergraduate engineering students.

A new Unit Operations Laboratory pumping experiment was designed and constructed at [Name of University] in Summer of 2022. The apparatus consists of a feed tank, pressure sensor, throttle valve, electromagnetic flow meter, two pumps, two variable frequency drives, two differential pressure sensors, four pipe sections of varying diameter, and an automatic data acquisition system for logging flow rate, head pressure, pressure drop, and motor power input. The total cost of the system was approximately $12,000.

This paper provides a detailed list of all parts of the pumping apparatus, including pipes, fittings, instruments, and equipment, along with the part number, vendor, and cost of each component. A detailed construction / assembly drawing is also provided so that other Unit Operations Laboratories can easily "steal this experiment."

This paper also discusses the learning objectives of the experiment and how they are achieved in the lab. After completing the pumping lab, students should be able to: 1. Safely operate centrifugal and positive displacement pumps, 2. Predict pressure drop through a horizontal pipe section, 3. Calculate pump efficiency, 4. Construct and interpret pump performance curves, and 5. Perform statistical tests to analyze the effects of the independent variables in the experiment on the dependent variables.

The experimental design carried out by students is also presented, along with a sample of the data generated and the calculations and statistical analysis performed in order to achieve the learning objectives in the experiment.