Characterization of Waste Valves That Produce Optimal Performance of Hydram Pump

Hydram pump or also called impulse pump, is a mechanical device that works by utilizing the momentum of water flow to pump some of the water to a higher place. The hydram pump is a simple structure, consisting of two moving parts, the waste valve and the pressure valve. The waste valve mainly affects the amount of impulse force generated. Waste valve characteristics are influenced by parameters such as valve hole diameter, valve disk diameter, stride length, and valve weight. The impulse force that can be investigated from pressure fluctuations that occur in the hydram pump air tube. For this reason, this research was tested experimentally in a laboratory on a hydram pump model made with transparent acrylic material, and was recorded using a slow motion video camera with 980 frames per second, the Sony RX 100 IV. The study was conducted on the variation of the diameter of the sewage valve hole 25 mm, 30 mm, 35 mm, and 40 mm. The visualization results show that the diameter of the sewage valve hole has a significant effect on the increase in pressure that occurs inside the hydram pump air tube. The greater the diameter of the sewage valve, the greater the pressure generated. This shows that the greater the diameter of the sewage valve, the greater the impulse force generated as a result of the greater flow of water flowing out through the sewage valve hole. Besides that, the results that have been obtained show that there is an influence of the diameter of the waste valve disks on the flow pattern around the waste valve, the greater the diameter of the waste valve disks, the rotation of the water flow that occurs in the more swirling water, because of the vortices the flow velocity the water slows down even more. Furthermore, the characteristics of the movement of the waste valve in the form of frequency are also affected, where the larger the diameter of the disc the faster the frequency and the pumping discharge is greater so that the efficiency of the hydram pump also increases