My SimulatorEngland / Village Engineering

English Water Pump Simulator

Move the handle. Follow the flow.

Interactive 3D • Hand Pump

PUMP CONTROLS

Pumping speed

Slow55 spmFast

Water collected

0.0L

Bucket 0.0 / 18 LCarried home 0 L

Show valves

NESW

Virtual demonstration only — not instructions for installing or repairing a real pump or well. Values are model values.

Lab & science

Drag the handle to pump by hand; drag elsewhere to orbit, wheel / pinch to zoom, tap a part to inspect it, tap the bucket to carry it home. Space = pump / pause, V = valves, B = carry bucket, R = reset.

Setup

Water table depth below the foot valve

Cylinder bore (diameter)

Leather seal wear (new → worn out)

Camera

Graphics (High on every device; Low = fewer droplets, 1x pixel ratio, smaller shadows)

Live readout (model values)

Experiment: flow against water depth

Runs the same stepper for 25 strokes at each depth (current speed, bore and seal) and compares the steady volume per stroke with the closed form.

Missions

Mission 5: what is the greatest depth (m) from which this pump can lift water at sea level, with a 5 kPa valve loss and a vapour pressure of 2.3 kPa? (answer within 0.4 m)

The science

What you see

A cast-iron village pump. Working the long handle moves a leather-cup piston up and down in a barrel. On the up-stroke (grip pushed down) the piston valve is shut, so the piston lifts the water above it towards the spout while the foot valve opens and atmospheric pressure pushes more water up the suction pipe. On the down-stroke the foot valve shuts and the piston valve opens so the piston passes through the trapped water. Water therefore leaves the spout in pulses, only on the up-stroke.

Equations

Lever            F_rod * L_r = F_hand * L_h        MA = L_h / L_r = 7.2
Stroke           s = L_r (sin phi_max - sin phi_min)   (0.110 m)
Swept volume     V_s = A s,  A = pi D^2 / 4             (0.365 L at D = 65 mm)
Rod force (up)   F = rho g A (H_s + H_d) + F_friction
Slip (leather)   u = (k0 + k1 w)(H_s + H_d)   [m/s]
Delivered/cycle  V = A [ s - u (T/2)(1 + r_d) ]         T = 60 / spm
Suction minimum  p_min = p_atm - rho g H_s - dp_valve
                          - rho (H_s + L_p)(A/A_pipe) a
Cavitation gate  gate = clamp((p_min - p_v) / dp_ramp, 0, 1)
Lift limit       H_max = (p_atm - p_v - dp_valve) / (rho g)   = 9.6 m
Barometer        p_atm = rho_Hg g (0.760 m)  =  rho_w g (10.3 m)

The last equation is why a suction pump cannot lift water more than about 10 m: air pressure pushes the water up, it is not pulled. Valve loss and the water's inertia remove a further margin; faster pumping raises the acceleration term.

Assumptions & honest simplifications

One lumped leakage coefficient for the worn leather and valve seats; the idle drain is 5 % of the pumping slip. Real seals vary widely.
Water is incompressible and the column does not oscillate; the suction column only adds the inertia term above. Air in the barrel and re-priming from dry are simplified to a column height that must be refilled.
Friction 60 N, valve loss 5 kPa, cavitation ramp 8 kPa, 20 C water and standard atmosphere are typical or illustrative values, not measurements of one pump.
The picture’s well is shallow (about 1 m to the water). The depth slider changes the physics only; the 3D water level stays where it is.
Bucket capacity 18 L, household barrel and the 60 L daily target (4 people, about 15 L each for drinking, cooking and washing) are illustrative.
Hand power is reported as mean force x grip speed; fatigue is not modelled.

Independent numerical checks

The same checks run in node: node check.js (closed-form volume per cycle, barometer constants, bisection of the lift limit, mass balance, energy balance, prime-loss time).

Sources

Textbook positive-displacement pump and suction-lift treatments (net positive suction head, atmospheric limit); water-supply engineering notes on hand pumps. Constants are typical or illustrative [verify before real use]. Not affiliated with any pump maker.

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