DEVELOPMENT OF A MANUALLY-OPERATED RECIPROCATING WATER PUMP

Abstract

In this work, a manually-operated reciprocating water pump was developed. In designing the machine, the working principles of bicycle a pump as well as that of piston in an automotive engine block were studied. These devices reciprocate, ensure airtight and compress air at high pressures. The piston has a diameter of 0.068 m, a stroke of 0.33 m and reciprocates inside a cylinder of bore 0.08 m. The valves and hoses were sized using a value of 1.8925 m3 capacity tank because most homes in Nigeria make use of it as storage tank. With this capacity, the theoretical discharge per second, Qth, was determined and found to be 0.00018 m3/sec. Thereafter, the pump was constructed using locally available materials. The piston and connecting rod were made of chromium so as not to contaminate water; seal was also made of brass. Other major components of the machine such as handle, camshaft, cam and cylinder were made of mild steel. The performance was evaluated by carrying out a series of tests on the machine. The pump generates a discharge pressure of 275,889 N/m2 and an actual discharge, Qact, of 0.0001775m3/sec at an average speed of 2.17 m/s; these results give the machine a volumetric efficiency of 98.61%. The machine is low-cost (N47,770.80), manually-operated and relatively easy to fabricate