Devices which convey fluids, chiefly liquids, from a lower to a higher elevation or from a region of lower pressure to one of higher pressure. Pumping machinery may be broadly classified as mechanical or as electromagnetic.
In mechanical pumps ghe fluid is conveyed by direct contact with a moving part of the pumping machinery. The two basic types are (1) velocity machines, centrifugal or turbine pumps, which impart energy to the fluid primarily by increasing its velocity, then converting part of this energy into pressure or head, and (2) displacement machines with plungers, pistons, cams, or other confining forms which act directly on the fluid, forcing it to flow against a higher pressure. See also Centrifugal pump; Displacement pump.
Where direct contact between the fluid and the pumping machinery is undersirable, as in atomic energy power plants for circulating liquid metals used as reactor coolants or as solvents for reactor fuels, electromagnetic pumps are used. There are no moving parts in these pumps; no shaft seals are required. The liquid metal passing through the pump becomes, in effect, the rotor circuit of an electric motor.
