16 ms·
Note that its not as trivial as you might think. Pumps cannot pull fuel from the 17th floor, because even if they create vacuum in the tube, atmospheric pressur
by achille 14y ago
Note that its not as trivial as you might think. Pumps cannot pull fuel from the 17th floor, because even if they create vacuum in the tube, atmospheric pressure can't push the fuel to the 17 floor. So the pump has to be positioned at the base, thus subject to flooding.
- bduerst 14y agoYou could siphon the fuel up the tube to the pump at the time of the pump's installation, right? Through a one-way valve?
- s_kilk 14y agothat is not how a siphon works. The destination must be at a lower elevation than the supply reservoir.
- bduerst 14y agoThat's what I meant - siphon the fuel up to the pump at installation, so you don't have any gas and don't have to rely on a vaccuum. As the pump draws fuel through the one way valve, the fuel continues to draw more fuel from below.
- stickfigure 14y agoThere are two reasons why this won't work. The first is that the fluid will draw a vacuum at the top of the pump. A vacuum on earth can only sustain 14psi - atmospheric pressure. For water, this constitutes a 33.9' column - after that you could draw a perfect vacuum at the top of the pipe and wouldn't the water to rise higher. Since diesel is less dense than water you might go a little higher, but probably not much. The second problem is that as you create a low-pressure zone at the top of the pipe, the fluid will boil (cavitate). This gasified liquid will fill the space and drop your pressure. Oils like diesel should have a significantly higher boiling point (aka lower boiling pressure) than water, but it's still a limit.