PERFORMANCE OF HYDRAULIC RAM BUILT WITH DIFFERENT VOLUMES OF PVC AIR CHAMBERS

Abstract

To capture surface water and groundwater, in most cases, electrical or fuel energy is required to drive a motor pump. This work aims to evaluate and compare the hydraulic characteristics of a hydraulic ram built with different volumes of PVC air chambers, according to its efficiency and economy. The study was developed at the Federal Rural University of the Amazon. Calibrated tanks and a stopwatch were used to obtain the supply flow, wasted water and repression volume. Four treatments were performed with 25% (125 L), 50% (250 L), 75% (375 L) and 100% (500 L) of raw material. For treatments with different volumes of air chambers, PVC tubes of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 cm in length were used. The experiment was a completely randomized design, carrying out the analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficient and the Tukey test for comparison among averages. There is a strong tendency to increase the repression volume and wasted when the volume of the air chamber is increased. The 0.250 L air chamber presented relevant results. In addition, it was demonstrated that with the increase in the volume of the air chamber, there was an increase in performance.