Question

A vacuum pump is used to drain a basement of 20 °C water (with a density of 998 kg/m3 ). The vapor pressure of water at this temperature is 2.34 kPa (abs). Atmospheric pressure is 100 kPa (abs). What is the maximum height that the pump can be placed above the water and still drain the basement?

Answer 1

Answer:

The maximum theoretical height that the pump can be placed above liquid level is $\Delta h=9.975\,m$

Explanation:

To pump the water, we need to avoid cavitation. Cavitation is a phenomenon in which liquid experiences a phase transition into the vapour phase because pressure drops below the liquid's vapour pressure at that temperature.  As a liquid is pumped upwards, it's pressure drops. to see why, let's look at Bernoulli's equation:

$\frac{\Delta P}{\rho}+g\, \Delta h +\frac{1}{2} \Delta v^2 =0$

($\rho$ stands here for density, $h$ for height)

Now, we are assuming that there aren't friction losses here. If we assume further that the fluid is pumped out at a very small rate, the velocity term would be negligible, and we get:

$\frac{\Delta P}{\rho}+g\, \Delta h =0$

$\Delta P= -g\, \rho\, \Delta h$

This means that pressure drop is proportional to the suction lift's height.

We want the pressure drop to be small enough for the fluid's pressure to be always above vapour pressure, in the extreme the fluid's pressure will be almost equal to vapour pressure.

That means:

$\Delta P = 2.34\,kPa- 100 \,kPa = -97.66 \, kPa$

We insert that into our last equation and get:

$\frac{ \Delta P}{ -g\, \rho\,}= \Delta h\\\Delta h=\frac{97.66 \, kPa}{998 kg/m^3 \, \, 9.81 m/s^2} \\\Delta h=9.975\,m$

And that is the absolute highest height that the pump could bear. This, assuming that there isn't friction on the suction pipe's walls, in reality the height might be much less, depending on the system's pipes and pump.