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Abstract In the present work, the effect of rod stiffness change on the performance of reciprocating pumps and its starting requirements were experimentally studied. The manufactured test rig was equipped with closed loop reciprocating pump. This system was driven by a squirrel cage electric motor through mechanical Scotch Yoke mechanism to transform rotational motion to linear (reciprocating) motion. The designed test rig was manufactured and tested. The reciprocating pump performance was investigated by varying distinctive design parameters such as, air pressures inside the pneumatic cylinder, which reflect the stiffness variation and motor speed. Then, the results were used to compare the performance achieved while changing the design parameters. The test rig was equipped with pressure transducers and a digital flow-meter to take the necessary readings during the experiments. Pneumatic cylinder with a load cell (S shape) was also installed to simulate the stiffness variation inside the reciprocating pump rod. A number of experiments were performed with changing the previously mentioned input parameters. The impact of each input parameter on the reciprocating pump performance was considered. For each case reciprocating pump performance curves, starting torque, power consumption, and efficiency were highlighted. Moreover, outcomes and results were obtained explained, analyzed, discussed and the conclusion drawn. It has been found that changing the reciprocating pump rod stiffness through pneumatic cylinder can affect the starting requirements of the reciprocating pump such as the starting torque and the rush current either if the driver is a wind turbine or an electric motor. The change of the reciprocating pump rod stiffness through the pneumatic cylinder improved the system efficiency and minimized the power consumption as well as the required starting torque. from the results obtained in the thesis, the starting torque requirements are decreased by an average of 19 %, power consumption corresponding to the peak starting torque are decreased by an average of 9% and the overall system performance and efficiency are increased by an average of 10%. |