Soft sensor based dynamic flow rate estimation in low speed radial pumps

Today, poorly controlled low power centrifugal pumps are responsible for a great fraction of the overall pump related energy consumption in the European Union [1]. It is expected that the energy efficiency can be improved considerably with appropriate automatic flow rate control. Automatic flow rate controllers are not popular among practitioners, however, since their installation and tuning is an additional effort, and since they require flow rate sensors, which result in an increased unit cost. We present a dynamic flow rate estimation method which makes automatic control without traditional sensors possible. The setup of the estimation method and all required measurements can be carried out by the manufacturer. As a result, the additional effort for the customer is kept to a minimum.