EPAj600jR-95j041

March 1995

IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMP INTAKE BASIN DESIGN

by

Robert L. Sanks
Department of Civil Engineering
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717

Garr M. Jones
Brown and Caldwell Consultants
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523-4342

and

Charles E. Sweeney
ENSR Consulting and Engineering
Redmond, WA 98052

Cooperative Agreement No. CR 817937

Project Officer
James A. Heidman
Technology Engineering Section
Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory
Cincinnati, OH 45268

RISK REDUCTION ENGINEERING LABORATORY

OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
CINCINNATI, OH 45268
 Disclaimer

The information in this document has been funded in part by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency under Cooperative Agreement No CR 817937
(Category IV) to Montana State University. It has been subjected to the
Agency's peer and administrative review, and it has been approved for
publication as an EPA document. Mention of trade names or commercial
products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

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 PREFACE

Typically, pump intake basins (or wet wells or pump sumps) designed in accordance
with accepted criteria are relatively large structures with flat or nearly flat floors. The water
surface fluctuates cyclically throughout a range in depth of about a meter. The influent fluid
plunges to the surface ina free-falling cascade, and the cascade often degrades pump
performance by entraining air and driving the bubbles deep into the pool, where they are often
ingested by the pumps. Air entrainment in pumps causes unequal vane loadings and flow
abnormalities that create excessive wear and significantly reduce head, capacity, and efficiency.
Solids-bearing waters, such as storm water, wastewater, or even fresh raw water, deposit sand
and sludge on the large floor. Scum, if present, spreads over the entire water surface area.
These depositions are commonly removed only with great difficulty and expense. In wastewater
systems, decomposing solids produce hydrogen sulfide gas, an odiferous toxic compound that
promotes formation of sulfuric acid and consequent deterioration of concrete and metal surfaces.
The cost of remedying the damage caused by acid attack amounts to many millions of dollars
annually nationwide.

The high cost of these large basins and the difficulty and expense of cleaning them led to
the development of the "self-cleaning" wet well--a narrow basin with one sloping side that
culminates in a bottom trench containing the pump intakes. By using variable speed pumps, the
pumped flow rate is adjusted to the inflow rate to eliminate the need for storage and thus
minimize the size and cost of the basin. A cascade is avoided by keeping the normal water surface
in the basin level with that in the upstream sewer. Hydraulic performance is improved because
there is no air entrainment and no stray floor currents. Deposition is decreased because settling
solids slide down the sloping side to the confining trench, where pump intake currents can
capture adjacent material. Furthermore, if the water level is lowered (called "pump-down")
into the trench, all floating material is confined in the trench, moved to the last pump by the
current, and sucked into the pump by a vortex. At the same time, the currents along the trench
sweep most of the deposits accumulated between pump intakes to the last intake, where they are
also sucked out by the last pump. No labor is needed beyond switching automatic level controls
off and on, hosing grease off walls (in raw sewage pumping stations), and repriming pumps--
hence the term "self-cleaning." Pumping station designs such as these are not well known but
have operated successfully for nearly three decades.

Variable speed drives are expensive and more difficult to maintain than the almost
universally-used constant speed drives that consist of only an electric motor with an across-
the-line starter. Furthermore, variable speed drives are inappropriate for pumping stations
with flat pump and system head-capacity curves, because small changes in speed cause large
changes in flow rate. The challenge was to extend the concept of self-cleaning to constant speed
pumps while avoiding the disadvantages of the typical intake basin.

The uncertainties created by the need to store water in constant speed pumping stations
and the consequent cyclical rise and fall of the water surface made model studies imperative. As
most pumping stations are small and pumps are usually--though not always--submersible
types, this project began as "Self-cleaning wet wells for constant speed submersible
wastewater pumps." Discoveries during the research are, however, applicable to other types of

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