Design of Suction Piping and Deaerator Storage Capacity to Protect Feed Pumps

The effect of transient suction pressure decay on a centrifugal boiler feed pump has been under study by Karassik, et al. Using concepts established by these authors, this paper presents an analytical method for determining the minimum permissible weight of water ratio between the deaerator storage tank and the suction piping to the boiler feed pump. With sufficient capacity this tank is capable of insuring against flashing at the pump’s suction, thereby avoiding cavitation and vapor binding of the pump.