The majority of water supply installations use hydraulic pump-turbines, requiring their inner casing and suction pipe be water filled (primed), to allow water suction. Pumps priming can be carried out installing them under the suction reservoir (drowned pump). When pump is above the reservoir and priming is manual, it will be necessary using foot valves, which are subjected to bad working, with a reduction of system reliability, mainly with automation. In this work, as an alternative to foot valves, two priming tanks were inquired, tested in the FCAV/UNESP-Jaboticabal, Brazil, Laboratory of Hydraulics and Irrigation, with the evaluation of suction head situations of centrifugal pump and relations between the useful volume of tank and suction pipe volume, with the conclusion as follows: a) priming tank volume is a function of pumping installation suction pipe volume and of suction head; b) priming tank volume can be calculated according to Boyle's Law with an increase percentage, which was in this inquiry 10% for a tank model and 30% for the second model.
hydraulic pumps; not drowned pump; priming
