What is different about centrifugal pump vs. gear pump?
A centrifugal pump is of kinetic energy type – it imparts energy to a liquid by means of centrifugal force produced by a rotating impeller, disk or other blade form. A positive displacement pump imparts energy by mechanical displacement. Piston, diaphragm, plunger, screw, vane, and gear pumps are some examples. Centrifugal pumps are essentially high liquid volume-low pressure. A large amount of liquid can be carried between the blades of the impeller, but as this is not a positive displacement pump, the volume of liquid drops off in proportion to the back pressure (head in feet) applied. A PD pump large enough to match the volume of delivery of a centrifugal pump would have enormous gears or diaphragms, and be impractical. On the other hand, to obtain the pressures of a PD pump, the impeller diameter of a centrifugal pump would have to be increased to an enormous size, and this would also be impractical. However, multistage centrifugal pumps can be used in place of PD pumps in many app
