mag

Malaysia Water Research Journal
PHYSICAL MODELLING TESTING FOR RAM PUMP
PERFORMANCE`
Noor Azme Omar (1) , Icahri Chatta (1) , Mohd Baharum Muhamad Din (1) , Mohd
Fauzi Mohamad (1) , Mohd Kamarul Huda Samion (1) , Ahmad Farhan Hamzah (1) ,
Mohd Khairul Nizar Bin Shamsuddin (1) &
Mohd Radzi Abd. Hamid (1)
(1)
National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM), Seri Kembangan,
Selangor, Malaysia.
azme@nahrim.gov.my
ABSTRACT
Provision of adequate domestic water supply for the scattered rural
population is a major problem in many developing countries including Malaysia.
Operation for the common pumping system had become an issue of water
supply to rural and remote areas due to a few reasons such as power supply
shortage, inaccessible infrastructure and new settlement. In order to minimize the
problem, a study had been conducted in NAHRIM’s laboratory using ram pump
technology. The aim of the study is to identify the performance of ram pump
for achieving sustained performance at optimum operational in laboratory
scale. The testing component consists of the ram pump and inverter controlled
pumping system with a series of pipelines. A total of 2 testing conditions had
been conducted during the study, which are dam simulation and river simulation
with 6 testing scenarios. It was found that the ram pump could transfer 10% of
total volume of water sources from any open channel using kinetic energy only.
The result of this study also found that the ram pump has a potential in supplying
water for rural and remote settlement area especially near the river.
Keywords: Gravity Flow, Ram Pump, Water Resources, Testing Conditions, Kinetic Energy.
1 INTRODUCTION
A ram pump is a hydraulic pump that uses energy from a falling quantity of
water to pump some of it to an elevation much higher than the original level at
the source. No other energy is required as long as there is a steady flow, it will work
continuously and automatically (De Carvalho et al., 2011; Filipan and Bergant,
2003; Herlambang and Wahjono, 2006). Provision of adequate domestic water
supply for the scattered rural population is a major problem in many developing
countries. Fuel and maintenance costs to operate conventional pumping system
are becoming prohibitive. The ram pump is an alternative pumping device that
is relatively simple technology that uses renewable energy and is durable. Ram
pump has been used for over two centuries in many parts of the world (Suarda
and Wirawan, 2008; Tessema, 2000; Inthachot et al.,2015). Their simplicity and
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Institut Penyelidikan Hidraulik Kebangsaan Malaysia (NAHRIM)
National Hydraulic Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM)