This type of pump has been used in the past for moving irrigation water and recently for moving waste water.
Archimedes screw pumps have become more common in waster water treatment plants because of their simplicity. The Archimedes screw pump is also better at handling large solids and suspended solids as opposed to typical diaphragm pumps. The electric motors turning the screws operate at a constant speed which also leads to better durability.
Archimedes Screw Pump
The Archimedes screw water pump is a technology that has been put to use for centuries. The Archimedes screw pump is thought to be originally designed by Archimedes around 250 B.C.. This type of pump has been used in the past for moving irrigation water and recently for moving waste water. A side view of a typical Archimedes screw pump is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: A diagram of an Archimedes screw pump.(adpated from Wikipedia.org)
An Archimedes screw pump is a large rotating screw that collects a portion of water from a sump or tank at the bottom of the screw. The screw pump then transports that portion of water to the top of the screw by rotating (Figure 2). To adjust the amount of water moved from the bottom to the top the water level at the sump is adjusted. The blue box in Figure 1 represents a sump. A higher water level in the sump means that more water can be collected at the bottom and transported to the top and vice versa.
Figure 2: An animation showing how an Archimedes screw pump operates.(adpated from Wikipedia.org)
Archimedes screw pumps have become more common in waster water treatment plants because of their simplicity. The Archimedes screw pump is also better at handling large solids and suspended solids as opposed to typical diaphragm pumps. The electric motors turning the screws operate at a constant speed which also leads to better durability.
Figure 2: Archimedes screw pump moving waste water up to the grit chamber.(photo courtesy of Dr. Dustin Poppendieck)
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