A Brief Introduction to Centrifugal Pump

Centrifugal pump is a common piece of machinery used widely in various kinds of industries for pumping low viscosity fluid such as – water. It works on the principle of converting rotational kinetic energy to hydrodynamic energy that would transfer the fluid from one place to other. It has inbuilt impeller that facilitates with movement of the liquid.

Centrifugal pumps are categorized into three major groups - mixed flow, axial flow, and radial flow. The axial pumps use the pressure created by the impeller in transferring liquid. The radial flow pumps completely depend on the pressure created by centrifugal movement. Mixed flow pumps, as the name suggests, use a combination of the two functions.


Centrifugal pumps find usage in wide variety of industries, specifically into – water processing stations, food processing units, manufacturing plants etc. It is the most common type of pump used in industries nowadays. Depending upon the industry the pump can be of varied size, type and functionality. But the pump isn’t self-priming, i.e. it needed to be filled with water to function well.

Usage of centrifugal pumps is varied. We have already discussed about its usefulness in various industrial frontiers. The pumps are also used in agricultural fields to maintain required water quantity. We can see the usage of   the same theory used in centrifugal pumps in sprinklers, fountains, irrigation pumps and other similar equipments.

On the domestic frontier, these pumps are most commonly used in facilitating water supply to households. The tank which receives water from the pump is generally placed at a slightly upper place to make sure that the pump functions well.

One of the main reason of its wide spread popularity is cost.  Depending on size, capacity and purpose, these are far more affordable than other industrial pumps. Moreover these work on a simple function and consume less units of power. It makes them greener and more economic option.

While selecting the pump one must however take into account capacity of the pump and the viscosity of the material on which it would be used. Depending on requirements the type, nature and capacity of the pump would be determined.