Abstract:
Water is the source of life, and the availability of water has become more crucial than ever
before. A source of energy to pump water was a big problem in many developing countries
especially in Ethiopia. A siphon pump was a way to carry water uphill without the use of
any external energy source like that of pumps us fuel, electricity, solar and others. A siphon
pump would be a solution for irrigation, harvesting and crops in the farm. The use of siphon
pump could be attractive and easier transportation systems for water pumping applications
in rural areas of many developing countries. This study aims to investigate the performance
and test of Siphon pump which able to make continuous flow of water to farm channel for
small-scale irrigation. This research conducted making using of ANSYS, computational
fluid dynamics and Taguchi analysis. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a part of
fluid mechanics that utilizes data structures and numerical calculations to analyze and solve
fluid (gases and liquids) flow problems like chemical compositions, density, and velocity.
This research Investigations shows that a head lift of suction pipe 1m, 1.10m, 1.50m, the
elevations difference between the reservoir and outlet pipe 0.0m, 0.3m, 0.5m, the delivery
pipe cross sections was 0.032m ,0.06m, and 10m length, flow rate and velocity. To obtained
an experimental and Taguchi analysis results shows a minimum value is head lift at 1m,
elevation 0, diameter 0.032m and 10 m length. Similarly, a maximum value is head lift
1.5m, elevation 0.5m, diameter 0.06m and 10m length respectively. The experiment show
that the siphon pump prototype could operate continuously in the condition of elevation
difference >0. While the condition elevation difference ≤0 was not possible to irrigate
continuously, the discharge will stop after the water run out of the tank until empty. These
test results infer that, as the input head increases, the delivery head also increases.
Controlled process parameters will be applied through the Energy equation of fluid flow in
Bernoulli’s equation.
Key words: siphon pump, CFD, Bernoulli’s equation, Taguchi analysis, head lift.