Turbo Pump

Published on 20 May 2022. Written by Bheru Singh

About the project

A turbopump is a propellant pump with a rotodynamic pump and a driving gas turbine. The purpose of a turbopump is to produce a high-pressure fluid for feeding a combustion chamber or other use.

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There are two types of turbopumps: a centrifugal pump, where the pumping is done by throwing fluid outward at high speed, or an axial-flow pump, where alternating rotating and static blades progressively raise the pressure of a fluid.

Axial-flow pumps have small diameters but give relatively modest pressure increases. Though multiple compression stages are needed, axial flow pumps work well with low-density fluids. Centrifugal pumps are far more powerful for high-density fluids but require large diameters for low-density fluids.

Turbopumps operate similar to turbocharger units used for vehicles i.e higher fuel pressures allow fuel to be supplied to higher-pressure combustion chambers for higher-performance engines.

In centrifugal type, the fluid enters the pump near the axis and the rotor accelerates the fluid to high speed. The fluid then passes through a diffuser which is a progressively enlarging pipe, which permits recovery of the dynamic pressure.

The diffuser turns the high kinetic energy into high pressures, and if the outlet backpressure is not too high, high flow rates can be achieved.

In Axial type, axle has propellers attached to the shaft, and the fluid is forced by these parallel with the main axis of the pump. Generally, axial pumps tend to give much lower pressures than centrifugal pumps, and a few bars is not uncommon

Turbopumps have a reputation for being extremely hard to design to get optimal performance. Whereas a well engineered and debugged pump can manage 70–90% efficiency. Turbopumps in rockets are important and problematic enough that launch vehicles using one have been caustically described as a "turbopump with a rocket attached"–up to 55% of the total cost has been ascribed to this area

Steam turbine-powered turbopumps are employed when there is a source of steam, e.g. the boilers of steam ships. Gas turbines are usually used when electricity or steam is not available and place or weight restrictions permit the use of more efficient sources of mechanical energy.

Ramjet motors are also usually fitted with turbopumps, the turbine being driven either directly by external freestream ram air or internally by airflow diverted from combustor entry. In both cases the turbine exhaust stream is dumped overboard.

Kit required to develop Turbo Pump:

• Miniature Turbo Pump
• Water
• Electric

Technologies you will learn by working on Turbo Pump:

• Pump
• Pressure
• Priming
• Cavitation

Any Questions?