May 20, 05
Dear Oso,
Thank you for that well-considered reply regarding
portable rams.
May I ask how you learned so much about ram pumps?
It sounds as though you have extensive personal
experience.
I'm interested in understanding why the ram has
fallen into disuse since the 1950s. I found a paper on
this that seems very good
at:www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/
cv/wedc/papers/20/sessiong/thomast.pdf
Ron Davis
--- oso954 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> --- In [email protected], davis ron
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > re a portable ram pump and drip system
>
> I foresee various problems with the concept for the
> portable ram and
> drip system.
>
> The first major problem is that attempting to
> pressurize a drip
> system from the down-hill side with a ram pump will
> seriously reduce
> the output of the ram. Secondly, your drip system
> will be almost
> impossible to balance. Bottom line, the trees at
> the higher
> elevations will never get enough water.
>
> Rolling up a complex manifold drip system is almost
> impossible and
> every time you do it generates leaks. If area B has
> a different plant
> spacingthan area A, the emitters or drip holes will
> be in the wrong
> location etc.
>
> I would look for a location or several locations to
> place water
> storage tanks at the uphill edge of the tree farm
> and layout my water
> system from there. The water system could be a drip
> system or other
> method.
> If using a drip system that would only run while the
> ram is pumping,
> these tanks could be as small as oil drums. If
> pumping times and
> irrigation times will differ, the tanks would have
> to be upsized
> accordingly.
>
> Your idea of using a flexible plastic tube or
> poly-pipe to supply
> various ram locations does have merit. However, I
> would get it up and
> out of the stream bed, as soon as possible. If you
> routed the pipe
> into the tree farm at an elevation about 0.5 meters
> lower than the
> inlet and followed that elevation, you might find a
> substantial
> number of trees below that elevation as you get
> further and further
> away from the inlet. These trees could be watered
> either directly
> from the tube(when rams are not in use) or a storage
> tank could be
> filled to be the water source for these downhill
> trees.
>
> With this method, you could place a ram at any
> location that has a
> good slope falling away from the tube. By placing
> your oil drum on
> the downhill side of the pipe, the system would be
> self-adjusting.
> The oil drum is about 1 meter tall, pipe 0.5 meter
> below original
> water level, the drum (as long as it is less than
> 0.5 meters lower
> than the pipe) would never overflow. No need for a
> float valve. No
> need for a tower.
> As long as you install a shutoff valve at the tube,
> you could move
> the ram, drive tank and drive pipe from one pumping
> location to
> another, if you wished to.
>
> Another benefit of maintaining the same elevation is
> that as you get
> further and further away from the original source,
> you should be
> gaining head as the stream and lay of the land falls
> away from the
> original high point source. You might be able to get
> 6-10 meters of
> drive head. With the tower system following the
> stream bed, you
> limited yourself to the 4 meter tower head.
>
> The one drawback to this method, (as compared to
> following the stream
> bed) is that you have to worry about the waste
> water. If you are not
> dumping it in a tributary stream or other natural
> water course, the
> waste water should be collected into a drainage
> basin and piped to a
> natural water course, to prevent erosion.
>
> You suggestion of possibly using a 3-4 meter drive
> pipe length is not
> advisable. The shorter drive pipes have a shorter
> frequency and it
> will limit the output of the ram (Quantity of water)
> and the delivery
> head. For your example of a 2 inch (50mm) ram with
> 4 meters of head
> you should use an 7.5 to 8 meter drive pipe as a
> minimum.
>
> One way of minimizing drive flow while maximizing
> ram output is to
> down size the drive pipe. A 50mm ram on a 37mm drive
> pipe will
> deliver more water than a 37mm ram would, while
> using far less water
> than a 50mm drive pipe and ram.
>
> I hope you find my comments helpful.
>
> Oso
>
>
>
>
>
>
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