Pedal Operated Water Pump

The socio-economic conditions of farmers living in villages of developing countries including India, human muscle power can be a good alternative to fulfill the energy requirements for performing many activities like water pumping. This work will eliminate the use of motor and engines to run the pump and it will use the energy which will not create any pollution. Pedaling is the most efficient way of utilizing power from human muscles. Keeping these things in mind you are going to build a pedal operated water pump.

To implement this project two single acting reciprocating pump is to be used. To supply continuous discharge, you have to connect two reciprocating pumps drive shaft. The drive shaft is powered by the foot pedals, using chain drive mechanism. The setup is built by using locally available materials to reduce the overall cost of the pump unit. Discharge of the pump is calculated theoretically as well as actually. The current work will be extended by using a hybrid mechanism to use both human power and other renewable energies.

To implement this project, you have to learn the designing principles behind making a Gerotor pump. According to that, design your own Gerotor and purpose a new set of lobes so that the efficiency of the pump is increased. While designing give more importance to minimize the flow ripple as it can directly increase pump performance and reduce noise. Then, you have to analyze your design using any simulation software. While analyzing consider the hydrodynamic effect of fluid. After analyzing validate your result with existing experimental solution.

Project Description:

Reciprocating Pump:Reciprocating pump is a positive displacement pump, which causes a fluid to move by trapping a fixed amount of it then displacing that trapped volume into the discharge pipe. The fluid enters a pumping chamber via an inlet valve and is pushed out via an outlet valve by the action of the piston or diaphragm. They are either single acting; independent suction and discharge strokes or double acting; suction and discharge in both directions. During the suction stroke, the piston moves left thus creating a vacuum in the Cylinder. This vacuum causes the suction valve to open and water enters the Cylinder. During the delivery stroke, the piston moves towards the right. This increasing pressure in the cylinder causes the suction valve to close and delivery to open and water is forced in the delivery pipe. The air vessel is used to get a uniform discharge. Reciprocating pumps are self-priming and are suitable for very high heads at low flows. The flow rate is changed only by adjusting the rpm of the driver. These pumps deliver a highly pulsed flow. If a smooth flow is required, then the discharge flow system has to include additional features such as accumulators. An automatic relief valve set at a safe pressure is used on the discharge side of all positive displacement pumps.
PVC Pipes: PVC pipes are made by Poly Vinyl Chloride. They are weightless and easy to use in any waterline area and more life compare than the steel pipes.
Check Valve: A check valve is utilized in a pump system to prevent backflow of the liquid when the pump is stopped. This reverse flow could cause damage to the pump. A check valve is a flow restrictor in the piping and will cause a pressure drop.
Plunger: Plunger is a component that tightly moves along inside the cylinder wall and creates pressure inside of the cylinder.
Elbows: Elbows are made by the PVC. They are used in bends and reduce the minor losses in the bends by its design.
Foot Valve: Foot valves are widely known as the foot strainer. Foot valves are used on the suction side of a pump to provide suction lift for pumps. They act as a check valve, maintaining the liquid in a pump’s suction line. This immersed in the water and it valve open only the pressure inside the cylinder low compare atmosphere.

Components and Required quantity for this Project:

PVC pipe 7cm: 3Ft
PVC pipe 3.8cm: 20Ft
No of Elbow Bend: 4
No of T joint Converter: 2
No of Plunger: 2
No of Foot Valve: 2
No of Check Valve: 2
No of Drive Shaft: 1
No of Pedal Assembly: 1
Plywood: 1

Dimension of the Component:

Cylinder Length(l) = 27cm
Stroke Lengt(L) = 20cm
rank Length(d) = 18cm
Cylinder Diameter(D) = 7cm

Project Implementation:

A PVC pipe of 7cm diameter and the 27cm length is used as a cylinder for the pump.
Then a plunger is inserted inside the cylinder.
The plunger rod is connected to the plunger and the plunger rod is then connected to a connecting rod and to the crank.
Two cylinders are connected to the drive shaft through the crank of 18cm length.
Like these two cylinders are assembled and connected with the drive shaft by using two separate cranks at 180° with each other.
The drive shaft is placed in the system with the help of two bearings.
The drive shaft is then connected to the pedal for power generation to operate the pump.
For suction and delivery, PVC pipes of 3.8cm are connected to cylinder respectively.
Check valves and foot valves are fixed to the delivery and suction pipes respectively to make the flow of water in the required direction.
For keeping the cost of the pump low, the setup for resting the two cylinders in a particular place is made up of plywood and clamps.

Project Brief: After successful completion of this project you can observe the following things,

It is a low cost handmade reciprocating pump which can be used for irrigation purpose and is using renewal energies for functioning.
It does not require any electrical or fuel power source.
It is powered by human effort. It is planned for adding a vertical windmill to the system which will provide power to the whole system in addition to human effort. It will add a benefit to the user when there is enough wind for working the system.
It can be used for irrigation or to lift the water to store for domestic use.
As per the calculation, the maximum discharge will be 90 liters per hour theoretically but actually, the discharge is 50 liters per hour as there are some constraints like jerking, friction loss, pipe loss, bending loss, etc. which reduces the discharge.

Software requirements:

CATIA: This is one of the popular solid modelling software made by Dassault System. You will use this software to design your machine structure.

Kit required to develop Pedal Operated Water Pump:

Technologies you will learn by working on Pedal Operated Water Pump: