Hydro Ram Pump

[sailawayrb]

Last week we received our approved irrigation "perfected" water right certificate from OR department of water resources.  Interestingly, this 1979 permit had never been formally "perfected" (i.e., certificated) and had been administratively back-logged for 30+ years because of agency budget/resource issues.  Here are the hydro ram pump system details extracted directly from our recent "perfected" water right certificate application:

An environmentally friendly, non-electric, hydro ram pump system was implemented to provide domestic and irrigation water for beneficial use.  

Point of Diversion (POD) is Spriggnett Creek, and surface water is taken from approximately 20 feet downstream from the county road culvert.  The POD inlet is fish screened and connected to a 2 inch diameter poly line (150 roughness coefficient) that runs 80 feet downstream with a total fall of 1 feet to supply an 8 inch diameter, 5 feet tall standpipe.  There is a ball valve located at the standpipe location to allow shutting off the water flow into the standpipe and thereby also allow shutting down the entire system.

A standpipe (please see photo) was required to address terrain issues at the site and to remove any air and grit from reaching the hydro ram pump.  Per Hazen-Williams Formula (please see calculation), the capacity of the 2 inch diameter poly line supplying the standpipe is 0.055 CFS.  However, this capacity can only be sustained for a few seconds until the standpipe is filled with water.  Thereafter, the flow rate into the standpipe is ultimately governed by the flow rate exiting the standpipe that the hydro ram pump actually uses.

The standpipe is connected to a 1 1/2 inch diameter galvanized steel "drive pipe" (120 roughness coefficient) that runs 63 feet downstream which results in a total fall of 5.1 feet to supply a hydro ram pump.  Per Hazen-Williams Formula (please see calculation), the capacity of this 1 1/2 inch diameter drive pipe supplying the hydro ram pump is 0.056 CFS.  However, the actual flow rate that exits this drive pipe is first limited by the aforementioned 2 inch diameter poly line capacity of 0.055 CFS and is ultimately governed by the flow rate that the hydro ram pump actually uses.

The hydro ram pump (please see photo) is connected to 3/4 inch poly line (150 roughness coefficient) that runs 280 feet uphill with a total elevation gain of 27 feet to supply a storage tank (please see photo).  The 27 feet of elevation results in the hydro ram pump effectively delivering water to the supply tank at 11.6 PSI (i.e., 0.43 PSI per foot of elevation).  This 11.6 PSI was also verified at the pressure gauge located at hydro ram pump location.  There are two ball valves located at the hydro ram pump location which allow shutting off both the water supply to the hydro ram pump and the holding tank to facilitate hydro ramp pump operation and maintenance.

A brief description of hydro ram pumps and principal of operation may be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_ram

A video of the actual hydro ram pump being used at this location in compliance with the 0.01 CFS flow rate of the permit may be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU5d69Vgcv4

Hydro ram pump performance is governed by following equations:

1)  S = P + W

2)  P = (E x S x F) / L

or equation 2) in alternative form

3)  E = (P x L) / (S x F)

where:

S = Supply Rate to pump in CFS,
P = Pumping Rate to storage tank in CFS,
W = Waste Rate used for pumping energy in CFS,
E = Efficiency of pump system,
L = vertical elevation Lift from the pump to the storage tank in feet, and
F = vertical Fall from the water source through the drive pipe in feet.

The actual Pumping Rate, P, to the supply tank has been measured to be 0.0024 CFS (1550 GPD).

The actual Ram Rate, W, that is used by the hydro ram pump for pumping energy (which then goes directly back to the creek) has been measured to be 0.0180 CFS.

Applying equation 1) and using the measured 0.0024 CFS for P and the measured 0.0180 CFS for W; the measured drive pipe Supply Rate is 0.0204 CFS.  This corresponds to the total flow rate being diverted to provide domestic/irrigation water and betters the 0.01 CFS permit value; hence the full permit 0.01 CFS is claimed.

Applying equation 2) and using the calculated drive pipe capacity of 0.055 CFS for S, 27 feet for L, 1.0 for E, and 5.1 feet for F; the theoretical pump capacity is calculated to be 0.0104 CFS.

Applying equation 3) and using the measured 0.0024 CFS for P, measured 0.0204 CFS for S, 27 feet for L, and 5.1 feet for F; the Efficiency of the system is calculated to be 0.623.

The storage tank is plumbed to allow general irrigation use via gravity flow, drip irrigation use via a 1/8 HP pump, and domestic/irrigation use via a 1/2 HP pump.  Any excess water pumped by the hydro ram pump to the storage tank that is not used is returned to the Spriggnett Creek POD via 3/4 inch diameter poly line (150 roughness coefficient) that runs 200 feet downhill with a total elevation loss of 21.9 feet.

Cheers,
Bob B.

[vdubnut62]

Very nice work! Sure beats "city" water rates. We just got a new rate increase and now for 2 people, my water runs close to $50 a month.
Ron.

[sailawayrb]

Thanks Ron and very true.  Domestic/irrigation water can be quite expensive if you have to pay for it.  0.01 CFS x 449 GPM x 60 Min/Gal x 24 Hours/Day x 30 Days/Month = 193,968 gallons/month.  193,968 gallons/month x $0.75/1000 gallons (our current rate...if we actually had a county water line we could use) = $145/month in savings.

Bob B.

[BioHazard]

That is a nice peice of engineering! About the closest thing I've seen to over unity...

Very nice work! Sure beats "city" water rates. We just got a new rate increase and now for 2 people, my water runs close to $50 a month.
Ron.

Yeah...we get a bill like that twice monthly.  It's too bad I don't live somewhere wet...like....Oregon.....

[sailawayrb]

It looks like I really should update this old thread...

I became an Oregon Water Resource Department (OWRD) Certified Water Rights Examiner (CWRE) a couple years after this original posting.  So I have now been certifying water rights for several years:

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/OWRD.pdf

Most of my CWRE work has involved "perfecting" water right permits into certificates or "transferring" the details of a water right certificate to something different from the original certification (e.g., transferring Irrigation Use to Nursery Use for the marijuana grower crowd).   I have also gotten involved in several dam removal projects for fish habitat restoration and conservation:

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/WaterWatch.pdf

We greatly improved our hydraulic ram pump system since this original posting.  Initially we just used a 3/4" diameter surface delivery poly line to fill a 1,500 gallon plastic surface tank.  We now have dual 2" diameter underground PVC pipe that fills our 10,000 gallon concrete underground storage tanks.  One PVC line is used to supply the tanks and the other is used to return the tank overflow back to the creek.  In a fire emergency we can use a gasoline powered pump and one or both these PVC to quickly fill these tanks.  More about our creek and well water system can be found here:

http://www.microcogen.info/index.php?topic=3702.0

We greatly improved the design and performance of the hydraulic ram pump.  Several years ago we designed and fabricated a highly efficient delivery line check valve for the original Landis hydraulic ram pump that significantly increased delivery flow rate performance.  With this new delivery line check valve, the maximum delivery flow rate performance at our installation site went from 514 to 1777 GPD with our 5.5 feet of Fall; 28.3 feet of Lift; 1.5 inch diameter times 63 feet long galvanized steel drive line; and 2 inch diameter times 320 feet long PVC delivery line; operating at 32 CPM. However, we normally operate our hydraulic ram pump at 130 CPM to deliver 556 GPD into underground water storage tanks which more than satisfies all of our domestic water, irrigation water and fire suppression water needs.

My good friend and affiliate who use to manufacture these hydraulic ram pump in China, Harry Landis, died in an ultralight accident on 1 November 2015 while in Guatemala at his Finca Ixobel hydram testing site.

https://www.fincaixobel.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIuS88sAglk

As requested by his family and in honor of Harry, we are now manufacturing and selling the Landis hydraulic ram pump to keep it available to those who need this pump.  This hydraulic ram pump is the improved 2-inch diameter drive line version of the hydraulic ram pump that we helped Harry Landis design and which he sold on eBay for several years.  Thank you Harry for all your contributions in improving the state-of-the-art hydraulic ram pumps. You are sorely missed.

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/Landis_Hydraulic_Ram_Pumps_for_Sale.pdf

We have an Amish affiliate who manufactures the pump bodies in Wisconsin and we manufacture the check valves in our southern Oregon shop.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, we developed a hydraulic ram pump performance calculator that is without question the best available in the world.  It involved much research and head scratching on my part over about a year timeframe to work out all the physics and code it into JavaScript so it can be used by any web browser:

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/Hydraulic_Ram_Pump_Performance_Calculator.html

This calculator is a real number cruncher and it can take well more than several seconds to kick out the solution.  If you just click "Solve", it will kick out the solution for our hydraulic ram pump installation.

And speaking of number crunchers and if you also happen to also be interested in firearm external ballistics, we developed some very nice calculators for that purpose:

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/Bullet_Ballistic_Coefficient_Calculator.html

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/External_Ballistics_Calculator.html

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/Firearm_Iron_Sight_Adjustment_Calculator.html

Several US Military and SWAT orgs have used these ballistic calculators for extremely accurate long distance scenarios...  My family greatly enjoys several shooting sports and we make our own firearms and ammo.  And as the photo shows, I have to always treat my wife Gayle with much devotion and respect at all times...

[mobile_bob]

Rob

you look like you have been a very busy man over the last several years!

i really like the hydraulic ram pump, but sadly there is just not enough water elevation here in central ks to use one.

remembering back to the mid 80's when i first arrived in the seattle area, bonney lake,  i recall taking weekend drives with the family up through carbonado, wilkinson, to carbon river ranger station, and stopping along the way at every bridge to take a look over the railing, then hiking around to see the resource.

i so badly wanted a few of those acres!  i wanted to run a 2" pipe up the mountain and set it into one of the many natural
basins to divert water down to a hydraulic ram and to a hyrdo electric generator... i was convinced that there was enough potential there to provide all the power and water i would ever need for a small family.  sadly most if not all the land is either state/fed owned or owned by "regis" (iirc) timber/lumber folks.  seems like one could lease some ground, but i never looked into it.

just outside of buckley wa. where the white river crosses 410 highway  on the way to enumclaw, there is a turnoff just on the other side of the bridge, follow that up a twisting hill and off to the left side is a very old concrete bridge long long abandoned the crosses a stream... the bridge was cut off decades ago, and is known as the "bois" creek bridge... not many of the local folks even know it is there.

i wanted to buy that bridge but was told i could never get a permit to do what i wanted to do... i wanted to build a house under the bridge, there was a ledge cast in the concrete about 8 ft above the water line, and the span was about 30ft with a width of iirc 25ft or so...  figured i would cut down through the bridge deck and put in a spiral staircase to get down into the place... glass wall on each side to enclose it and have a view of paradise everyday of the year, as it never freezes enough to do anything to the ferns or other greenery.

call me a troll, but if i could have gotten permitting for the project, i would be living there today!

not sure what this last part had to do with your posting, but damn you live in a beautiful part of the world!

bob g

[sailawayrb]

I didn't notice your response Bob until now... 

I did that Carbon River hike with scouts many years ago and I also know exactly that bridge spot near Buckley to which you refer.  I did a lot of hunting in that Mud Mountain Dam area.  Yes, very beautiful country for sure when the sun shines...  And I greatly enjoyed my nearly 40 years living there when I was younger and working full time.  But I think the dreary Winters would be problematic for me now that I am older and semi retired.  I very much prefer the four distinct seasons of southern Oregon over the two seasons (dry and wet) of Seattle area.

Yes, there is much opportunity for hydro power in this part of the country.  And I think it is a great way to generate power when it is done right.  Unfortunately, in the past it wasn't often done right much to the detriment of fish.  And I very much like fly fishing and eating fish...  So I spend some of my time working to remove bad dams:

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/WaterWatch.pdf

https://apps.wrd.state.or.us/apps/wr/wrinfo/wr_transfer_centric.aspx?transfer_nbr=13555&transfer_char=T%20

And I would also like to spend some of my time building good dams for hydro power...but solar power now appears to be more the future than hydro power.