A Device that moves fluids (or sometimes slurries) by mechanical action.

The fluid flow through the pump is characterized by the following properties:

$\begin{array}{l}p_{in}\end{array}$	intake flow pressure
$\begin{array}{l}p_{out}\end{array}$	discharge flow pressure
$\begin{array}{l}\Delta p = p_{out} - p_{in}\end{array}$	pump pressure gain
$\begin{array}{l}q = q_{in}\end{array}$	volumetric flowrate at intake
$\begin{array}{l}\dot m = q \cdot \rho (p_{in})\end{array}$	mass flowrate through the pump
$\begin{array}{l}\rho (p)\end{array}$	fluid density at a given pressure $\begin{array}{l}p\end{array}$

The two major properties of the pump are:

$\begin{array}{l}\Delta p_{max}\end{array}$	maximum pump pressure gain
$\begin{array}{l}q_{max}\end{array}$	maximum flowrate

In most practical cases the pump pressure gain is the function of the pump volumetric flowrate and only depends on the pump specifications.

This function is usually pictured graphically as Pump Characteristic Curve (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Example of Pump Characteristic Curve.

There are numerous Pump Types depending on application and logistics.

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See also