Abstract:
A stream powered spiral pump is a water pumping system that combines to old technologies; water
wheel and spiral tube pump. It works based on cascaded manometer principle to pump a portion
of water from a stream using the stream’s kinetic energy, harnessed by the water wheel. As a result
it is commonly categorized under manometric pumps. Mainly under this category there are two
types of pumps; coil pump and the spiral pump. Spiral pumps are considered to be a gift from God,
because it uses renewable energy source, it has zero emission and operation cost, and it can be
manufactured and maintained by local craftsman using available materials. But the problem is
because of the emergence of conventional pump it was not well studied so the understanding on
this tech was limited. Therefore, this research project’s general objective was to conduct an
experimental study on the effect of important parameters on the performance of locally developed
spiral pump system so that it can be readily design and applied for local irrigation work. In
achieving this specific objectives the study were: to conduct a study on paddle shape of water to
select the better; to conduct experimental study on the effect of submergence ratio, rotational
speed, outer diameter and number of turns of the spiral tube pump; to compare the performance
of coil pump and spiral pump; to optimize the parameters of the spiral pump system; and to clearly
describe the design procedure of a spiral pump so that it can be readily developed. The study on
paddle shape of the conducted numerically using SolidWorks flow simulation. The experimental
study on the important parameters was conducted on Jimma Kito River. The comparison of the
spiral and coil pump was done using analytical approach. Also the important parameters levels
was optimized using Taguchi method. Finally understanding limitation was solved and then seven
step design procedure was developed and stated clearly. Accordingly 22.50 slanted curved shape
paddle found to be high velocity yielding for the spiral pump. Regarding to the important
parameters submergence ratio and wheel speed mainly affects the pump discharge while the
number of spiral turns mainly affects the head, and the outer diameter affects both. Also the coil
pump will be better for the need of higher discharge and the spiral pump will give higher head for
the same number of coils. Finally the important levels was given as factors for Taguchi method
optimization using Minitab software, and pump running by 35 RPM, at 50% submergence, with 6
spiral turns and 1.5m outer diameter found to be the optimum, yielding 21 liters of water per
minute to 4.1 meter head.
