Friday, 29 September 2017

[How to] Calculate NPSH - Net Positive Suction Head


Gud morning all.....!!! This post is delivered based on a request. Even though the request is comment form, i would like to deliver in full length, because while trying to learn about this on my own, i found its depth.

For getting all those that i'm delivering may be you need to go through some terminology, which will be useful to easily what i'm delivering.


What is NPSH & What does it mean exactly ?

NPSH - Net Positive Suction Head

It is just difference between Suction pressure and Vapour pressure.

NPSH = Ps - Pv.

Ps - Stagnation suction pressure at the pump inlet while pump is in running condition.

Pv - Vapour pressure of the solvent that is pumped.

What is Stagnation suction pressure ?

Stagnation suction pressure is the static pressure at a stagnation point there the fluid velocity is zero.

What is the relation between Pressure and Head ?

Head,h(feet) = 2.31 x P(psi) / SG.

P - Pressure, SG - Specific Gravity.

Don't get confused, i'll explain you from where i've established this equation.

Usually Vapour pressure shall be expressed in absolute scale, So suction pressure also be expressed in absolute scale, and we got a basic relation between Absolute pressure, Gauge pressure & Atmospheric pressure.

Absolute pressure = Gauge pressure + Atmospheric pressure,

Absolute pressure = Gauge pressure + 1.

All the pressure units were in psi.

What is Cavitation ?

Usually everyone knows cavities in nothing but holes and thats for solids, while coming for liquids cavities is nothing but just air bubbles.

These bubbles while drain the capacity of pumps,
Even they may effect the pump mechanical seal.

How to avoid the cavitation ?

By arranging the suction and discharge line in such a fashion that the pump should be possibly near to the suction receiver and the discharge line size should be 15-20% less than that of suction line, so that there may be chance for healthy pressure development in the discharged.

How liquid  Velocity effects the pressure ?

Mostly everyone thinks that if pressure increases the velocity shall increase, but as per me that not right, because if pressure increases it means whatever the flow that was initiated by a pump is not getting getting pumped through the line, so the velocity and pressure both are inversely proportional.

What is Head ?

Head is nothing but just pressure, let me clear you in detail, Usually the pump capacity depends upon the Impeller dia and impeller RPM. The pressure we get depends on the Specific gravity of the liquid. 

Conversions :

Feet of liquid = Inches of mercury x 1.133 / SG
                         = Pounds per square inch x 2.31 / SG
                         = Millimeters of mercury / ( 22.4 x SG ).

What are the types of NPSH ?

As per me there are two types of NPSH,




1. NPSHR - Net Positive Suction Head Required,
2. NPSHA - Net Positive Suction Head Available.

Going deep into the topic, i would like to elongate the NPSH as

NPSH = Static head + Surface pressure head - Liquid vapour pressure - Loss in the piping, fitting, valves.

Static head - it should be measure from the centerline of the pump suction to the top of the liquid level.



Vapour pressure of the product, for your convenience here i'll present you two graphs for absolute pressure vs temperature.


Vapour pressure chart for -60 to 240 F

Vapour pressure chart for -180 to 60 F
 Note: These graphs were grabbed from google images.

Loss of pressure due to fittings, valves & piping.

find the below charts, with resistance Coefficients.

Use the formula h = V^2 / ( 2 x g ), feet of liquid.


Friction fittings
Friction valves
Note: These images were grabbed from google images

Now lemme demonstrate the with some basic examples, because gathering information is just a beginning, but utilising them and analysing the case studies in much more important.

Example :
In 1.25" pipe size at 50 gpm, there will be 36.0 feet of loss for every 100 feet of pipe.


Friction loss in 1.25" to 1.5" pipe lines

 Pressure loss due to friction in 2.00" to 2.50"
Pressure loss due to friction in 3" pipe size

Pressure loss in 6" pipe size

Now lets start our show, and enter the calculation part, from here be careful and upto my expectation, many readers should have given up reading all the stuff 😆

Example :

Lets suppose the tank having liquid is at sea level and the liquid is 10 m above center line of pump impeller and coming to piping its a 15ft of 2" and a included 90° elbow bend, pumping 150 gpm water at 68°F, NPSHR is 12 ft.

Now, Static head = 10 ft,

Atmospheric pressure = pressure x 2.31 /SG = 14.7 x 2.31 / 1 = 34 ft absolute.

Vapour pressure at 68°F is 0.27 psi,

Pressure to head conversion = 0.27 x 2.31 / 1 = 0.62 ft,

Bring the friction charts into focus,
150 gpm flowing through 2" shows a loss of 38 feet for each 100 ft of pipe line, i.e, 38 / 15 = 2.53 feet of head loss.

The K factor for 2" 90° elbow bend is 0.6 ft,

Clubbing the whole feet of head loss will give us 2.53 + 0.6 = 3.13 ft.

NPSHA = Static head + Atmospheric pressure + gauge pressure - Head due to vapour pressure - friction losses 

= 10 + 34 + 0 - 0.62 - 3.13 = 40.25 ft

The NPSH required is 12 ft and we are able to generate 40.25 ft, so this is more than enough for pumping.


That's it.........!!!

This post is requested by Mr. Ram,

Hope everyone able to grab this, if any queries feed free to comment / message.

Comments are most appreciated.

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About The Author


Hi! I am Ajay Kumar Kalva, Currently serving as the CEO of this site, a tech geek by passion, and a chemical process engineer by profession, i'm interested in writing articles regarding technology, hacking and pharma technology.
Follow Me on Twitter AjaySpectator & Computer Innovations


Sunday, 24 September 2017

[How to] Calculate the Assay of product in Liquid



Good Evening all......!!!

Back after many days with a post, this may confuse all the readers, but don't get desperate after reading it.

Being a guy from Tech transfer / Process Engineering department, some time we might be a part of project execution and in that case this may help you 0.00001%,

 While a new project execution many a time during analysis, it will be a nail biting situation waiting for result, especially this will help you while you are desperately waiting for a Assay content in a liquid product layer.

But before that, i should deliver some basic things to ensure that it will be in reach of every one.

What is Assay ?

Assay is nothing but just the actual content of something desirable in a sample which we need to determine.

What are the ways to determine the Assay ?

In a Pharma industry, Usually Assay will be determined based on a standard, i.e., there should be a 100% pure active content material which is used to compare the sample with the standard.

For ex. Lets suppose there is product layer sample, i mean our product is dissolved in some solvent, and the sample is injected in a HPLC column against the 100% standard sample solution,

and it has returned some peaks, 
Let the peak area of the sample is At, 
Peak area of standard be As,
Wt is the weight of sample injected,
Ws is the standard weight injected,
P is potency(concentration) of standard [ usually it will be 100%].

Assay =  Read this.




The above mentioned thing a Quality Control related strategy for Assay determination, but we process engineers should be somewhat smart than those guys, to get a rough view about the result.

You may also like:


How to calculate volume occupied by torispherical dish ? 





Select a pump required for an operation

Forget to mention that, if you reading the post to determine standard's assay content, this is useless.

This post will help you to know the product content in the final organic/aqueous layer that to only if the final solvent is having a single solvent, for binary solvent mixture this might not be helpful.

Anyway, now i'll start my show,

I'll give you a Case study, during a product manufacturing in the final weight declaration, we need to concentrate a product layer sample in a lab distillation setup and based on the final concentrated residue, we need to calculate and declare the weight.

Lets our product is in Acetonitrile solvent, total product layer qty is 2000 L.
Sample Qty. 500 ml, Weight of sample is 410 gm.

Lets calculate the product content,




500 ml of acetonitrile should weigh around 500*0.786 = 393 gm.

but out sample is weighing around 410 gm,

So now the difference is 410-393 = 17 gms.

Assay(includes impurities) = ( 17 / 410 ) x 500 = 20.73 %

So total weight of dissolved product in 2000 L of acetonitrile will be 

( 20.73 / 100 ) x 2000 = 414 Kg. 




That's it.....!!! Hope you understood.......!!!

Any queries feel free to comment / message me....!!!

Comments are appreciated....!!!!

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What is TR, how to calculate it ?
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Select motor, pipe & line sizings 

About The Author


Hi! I am Ajay Kumar Kalva, Currently serving as the CEO of this site, a tech geek by passion, and a chemical process engineer by profession, i'm interested in writing articles regarding technology, hacking and pharma technology.
Follow Me on Twitter AjaySpectator & Computer Innovations