Like most pumps, a centrifugal pump converts mechanical energy from a motor to energy of a moving fluid; some of the energy goes into kinetic energy of fluid motion, and some into potential energy, represented by a fluid pressure or by lifting the fluid against gravity to a higher level.

The transfer of energy from the mechanical rotation of the impeller to the motion and pressure of the fluid is usually described in terms of centrifugal force, Vacuum pumpsespecially in older sources written before the modern concept of centrifugal force as a fictitious force in a rotating reference frame was well articulated. The concept of centrifugal force is not actually required to describe the action of the centrifugal pump.

In the modern centrifugal pump, most of the energy conversion is due to the outward force that curved impeller blades impart on the fluid. Invariably, Screw pumpssome of the energy also pushes the fluid into a circular motion, and this circular motion can also convey some energy and increase the pressure at the outlet.

The statement "the mass of water ... must necessarily exert a centrifugal force" is interpretable in terms of the reactive centrifugal force

2011-11-17

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