Impeller from a New Orleans pump, 2,400 cubic feet per second capacity
Posted on 09/03/2005 6:36:23 PM PDT by A. Pole
Efforts to drain New Orleans hit another snag Friday as the Army Corps of Engineers discovered that it could not buy new pumps to replace those damaged by the flooding.
Massive pumps capable of draining the city like those that have been keeping New Orleans dry for decades are no longer made and would have to be specially ordered, a process that would take too long, said Col. Richard Wagenaar, the senior corps official in New Orleans.
Instead, repair crews will have to dry out the existing pumps, which could take up to a week, before repairing them with replacement motors and parts and begin pumping water back into Lake Pontchartrain. The repair job could prolong efforts to drain the city, about 80% of which is submerged.
"These pumps are so big, you can't buy them off the shelf. You have to make them, and we don't have time for that," said Wagenaar, who spent about an hour Friday escorting President Bush around the levee damage at the 17th Street Canal.
The city, much of which is below sea level, relies on a network of 22 pumps to keep water out. Army engineers now believe eight pumps are underwater.
The latest wrinkle illustrated the enormous complexity of draining the city, which for more than 200 years had gradually built up an elaborate system to keep itself dry.
Even with the setback, Wagenaar said, the city could be drained in three to six months, mainly because engineers may finally be able to get to the largest pump station, at the end of the 17th Street Canal, as early as today.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Impeller from a New Orleans pump, 2,400 cubic feet per second capacity
Just get Nagin, Blanco, Sharpton and Jackson to mouth siphon the water out. They really suck so it should be easy.
Pipeline pumps work at relatively high pressure and low flow.
Flood water pumps work at low pressure and high flow.
I guess the Great Hurricane of 1938 must have been the creation of V. Bush.
A million gallons/minute is about right for all NO pumps together.
You aren't going to drain a lake with buckets. But, I wonder if they've thought of using early style irrigation techniques. It might provide a manual means of assisting automated removal of the water and would have greater impact.
Don't worry, we have more. :)
Would have partially worked a few days ago. but now that LP is almost at sea level, where does the water drain TO?
I just offered it as a more intelligent idea than a bucket brigade.. No idea where it can drain to in all honesty. I think they're all morons down there for living beneath sea level and then being shocked when the sea comes up on them.
This is, afterall, a bit of a no brainer isn't it. And here we all are bailing their sorry butts out of a pickle that never should have been allowed in the first place if anyone sane were looking at the situation. That may be a bit of monday morning quarterbacking; but, IMO, these people all deserve a collective "Darwin" award.
How quicky people forget:
President Declares Major Disaster For Indiana Floods
Release Date: September 5, 2003
Release Number: HQ-03-179
» More Information on Indiana Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding
» How To Apply For Assistance
Washington, D.C. -- The head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced today that President Bush has declared a major disaster for Indiana, opening the way for the use of federal disaster funds to help meet the recovery needs of families and businesses overwhelmed by floods and other extreme weather that started late last month.
Why not just use a whole bunch of largest available but smaller pumps?
Manpower and power.
Oh get a grip Why because it makes to much sense
Seriously sounds good to me
Massive pumps... for decades are no longer made
HEY TRY CHINA !!
LOL LOL LOL
I presume that some Chinese, Japanese and Korean engineering firms are already flying in with plans for how these can be built and delivered by next Thursday. This used to be called Yankee inenuity.Bzzzzt.
Dry out the switchgear and the motor's stator windings (that work on 6 KV 25 HZ 3-phase AC) and everything will be okay.
THIS can achieved a number of ways ...
Having a BS in ME with a concentration in Fluid Thermal systems and subsequently having worked for Ingersoll Dresser Pump before getting my MS in Mechanical I will say you are pissing in the ocean with pumps like that. First rain you get will remove all the progress you make and it rains a great deal in NO.
Why not just use a whole bunch of largest available but smaller pumps?Wasted effort on a 'piddling' goal; What is required is the present AC switchgear, the synchronous converters (know what those are for?) and the motor's stator's need to be dried out, a 'hipot' (literally: High Potential A/K/A voltage) test performed from ground to windings THEN put that gear back in service ...
Do a Google search on
THE A.B. WOOD LOW HEAD HIGH VOLUME SCREW PUMP
to get an idea of the efficincy and capability of the present pumps.
Or study these two documents posted by someone earlier:
http://www.asme.org/history/brochures/h003.pdf
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/history/NO_Drainage/NO_Drain_chap4a.pdf
If and this is a big if - it NEVER rains.
Which one--the one that claimed N.O. was 4000+ square miles, or the one that claims it is 200 square miles--both of which are wrong on AT LEAST the amount of land area that needs to be pumped out.
"Having a BS in ME with a concentration in Fluid Thermal systems and subsequently having worked for Ingersoll Dresser Pump before getting my MS in Mechanical I will say you are pissing in the ocean with pumps like that. First rain you get will remove all the progress you make and it rains a great deal in NO.
Good for you. Now, why isn't a million gallons a minute useful?? Forget that any single pump only does 1000 gallons /minute. And, by the way, I'm FROM Louisiana, so I know just how much it rains.
Another poster (#345) says that 1,000,000 gallons a minute is about equal to the capacity of the current N.O. fixed-base pump system.
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