The research focused on development of pumps called pneumatic. This type of pumps use compressed air to lift water. The pumping principle uses compressed air acting directly upon the surface of the liquid being pumped, maintaining an air/liquid interface. The main objectives of the present study were: Construct a simple model of pneumatic pump by available materials, evaluate some engineering parameters of pneumatic pump, draw and estimate the performance curve of pneumatic pump at lifting water (from 20 to 60m)and study of operation cost of pneumatic pump. The pneumatic pump could be double or single-acting but double-acting is better and it consists of the main unit and assistance unit The study parameters are:- Stroke length of pump prototype were of 10,20,30, 40,50,60,70,80,90,100cm. And water lift (pressure head)of 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 meters. At every opening position, some variables were measured as: Discharge rate, air pressure manometer, volt, ampere, full time and pulse time. The results can be summarized as:-
The pump performance at stroke length of 80cm for double-acting at different heads had good result for efficiency at head 20m, discharge was 0.58 l/s, the consumed power for pump was 0.31 kW, the air consumption was 3.9 m3 N. air/m3water and efficiency for pump was 37.11%, while total efficiency was 14.65%, but at head 60m discharge was 0.2 l/s, the consumed power for pump was 0.28 kW, the air consumption was 7.1 m3 N. air/m3water and efficiency for pump was 42.55%, while total efficiency was 13.78%.
The results show that total cost = 0.453 L.E/h and the total cost of lifting water at different pump lifts was 0.22 L.E/m3 at 20m lift by flow rate of 2.073m3/h and 0.63 L.E/m3 at 60m lift by flow rate of 0.719 m3/h.