Engineering · Pumps — Series/Parallel

Two identical centrifugal pumps connected in series (discharge of one feeding the suction of the next) will, compared with a single pump:

Explanation

Pumps in series add their heads (booster/high-head service); pumps in parallel add their flows at a common head (high-capacity service). Actual gains are somewhat less than the ideal because system resistance rises with flow.

Authority: Modern Marine Engineer's Manual; pump theory

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