Water well pump

Abstract

A water well pump is shown which uses regenerative turbine technology. A submersible electric motor has an output shaft which drives multi-stage regenerative turbine stages of the pump. The various stages are made up of turbine impellers separated by intermediate plates. The turbine impellers have peripheral vanes which cooperate with surrounding scraper rings to form flow channels through the regenerative section of the pump and impart energy to the water passing through the pump. The pump can be powered by a low energy source, such as a solar panel.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified view of a water well having an electric submersible pump of the invention installed therein.

FIG. 2 is a side view, partly in section, of the submersible pump of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the pump of the invention, showing the component parts thereof.

FIG. 4 is an isolated view of the of the base plate of the regenerative turbine section of the pump of FIG. 3, partly broken away for ease of illustration.

FIG. 5 is an isolated view of the thrust tower device used in the regenerative turbine section of the pump.

FIGS. 6-8 are isolated views, partly broken away, of various versions of the scraper rings which are used in the regenerative turbine section of the pump.

FIG. 9 is an isolated view, partly broken away, of a turbine impeller used in the regenerative turbine section of the pump.

FIG. 10 is an isolated view, partly broken away, of an intermediate plate of the pump of FIG. 3.

FIG. 11 is a partial sectional view of a labyrinth seal of the type which can be employed in the turbine section of the pump.

FIG. 12 is a view of a turbine impeller similar to FIG. 9, but showing a labyrinth seal added to either of the two opposing faces thereof.

FIG. 13 is a view of an intermediate plate of the pump showing the mating labyrinth seal added to the top face thereof.

Claims

1. A water well pump used to supply water from a downhole subterranean location within a wellbore to a surface location by means of surface plumbing, the pump comprising: an electric motor positionable within the wellbore and having an associated electrical supply cable extending from the well surface to the downhole location for supplying electric current to the motor, the electric motor having a rotatably driven output shaft, the shaft extending outwardly from the motor generally along a central axis of the wellbore;a pump sleeve and associated suction case generally aligned along the axis of the motor output shaft, the suction case having at least one opening for receiving well water;a plurality of regenerative turbine stages contained in a stacked arrangement within the pump sleeve and coupled to the shaft for rotary motion as the motor drives the shaft, the regenerative turbine stages forming a regenerative turbine section of the pump having an inlet for receiving well water from the suction case and having an outlet port connected to the surface plumbing for supplying well water to the surface location.

2. The water well pump of claim 1, wherein the regenerative turbine stages include impellers separated by intermediate plates, the impellers having a series of peripheral turbine vanes located on each of opposing sides thereof for moving water through the regenerative turbine section of the pump.

3. The water well pump of claim 2, wherein water enters the regenerative turbine section at a inlet location near an outside diameter of each impeller, is accelerated about the periphery of the impeller before then exiting at a radial location which is at or near the same radial location on the impeller as the inlet location.

4. The water well pump of claim 1, wherein the electric motor is powered from a harvested energy source selected from the group consisting of solar panels and windmill generated energy sources.

5. A water well pump used to supply water from a downhole subterranean location within a generally vertical wellbore to a surface location by means of surface plumbing, the pump comprising: an electric submersible motor positionable within the wellbore and having an associated supply cable extending from the well surface to the downhole location for supplying electric current to the motor, the electric motor having a rotatably driven output shaft, the shaft extending outwardly from the motor generally along a central vertical axis of the wellbore;a cylindrical pump sleeve and associated cylindrical suction case generally aligned along the vertical axis of the motor output shaft, the suction case having at least one opening for receiving well water;a plurality of regenerative turbine stages contained in a stacked arrangement within the pump sleeve and coupled to the shaft for rotary motion as the motor drives the shaft, the regenerative turbine stages forming a regenerative turbine section of the pump having an inlet port for receiving well water from the suction case and having an outlet port connected to the surface plumbing for supplying well water to the surface location; andwherein the regenerative turbine stages include a plurality of impellers separated by intermediate plates, the impellers having a series of peripheral turbine vanes located on each of opposing sides thereof for moving water through the regenerative turbine section of the pump between the inlet port and outlet port thereof.

6. The water well pump of claim 5, wherein water enters the regenerative turbine section at a inlet location near an outside diameter of each impeller, is accelerated about the periphery of the impeller before then exiting at a radial location which is at or near the same radial location on the impeller as the inlet location, creating a regenerative turbine action for imparting energy to the water.

7. The water well pump of claim 5, wherein the electric motor is powered from a harvested energy source selected from the group consisting of solar panels and windmill generated energy sources.

8. The water well pump of claim 5, wherein the suction case carries a pleated filter screen for filtering large debris from the water entering the regenerative turbine section of the pump.

9. The water well pump of claim 5, wherein the regenerative turbine section of the pump comprises a base plate and a discharge plate, and a plurality of impellers located therebetween, the impellers being separated by intermediate plates, and wherein the base plate contains the inlet port and the discharge plate contains the outlet port from the regenerative turbine section of the pump.

10. The water well pump of claim 9, wherein each impeller is surrounded peripherally by a scraper ring which is held in position by upper and lower intermediate plates, and wherein the scraper ring mates with the impeller to form a circumferential channel for regenerated water to pass about as it passes between the inlet port and the outlet port of the regenerative section of the pump.

11. The water well pump of claim 10, wherein each scraper ring has at least one scallop at a given interior circumferential location about the periphery of the ring which forms an inlet and outlet path for regenerated water as it passes through one stage of the multi-stage regenerative section of the pump.

12. The water well pump of claim 11, wherein each intermediate plate has opposing planar faces, and wherein each opposing planar face is equipped with a plurality of centrally located thrust towers which are arranged in a circumferential pattern on each planar face, the thrust towers serving to support the impellers while allowing rotational movement of the impellers relative to the scraper rings within the regenerative turbine section of the pump.

13. The water well pump of claim 12, wherein the base plate and the discharge plate each has an interior planar face which is equipped with a plurality of centrally located thrust towers which are arranged in a circumferential pattern on each of the respective planar faces, the thrust towers serving to support the impellers while allowing rotational movement of the impellers relative to the scraper rings within the regenerative turbine section of the pump.

14. The water well pump of claim 13, wherein the impellers, intermediate plates, suction plate and discharge plate are each provided with mating labyrinth seal structures.

15. The water well pump of claim 5, wherein a velocity reduction tube is mounted onto the suction case of the pump for reducing the velocity of the water entering the pump in order to cause entrained sediment to drop out of the water.

16. A method of pumping water from a downhole subterranean location within a wellbore to a surface location, the method comprising the steps of: locating an electric submersible pump within the wellbore at a selected downhole location, the submersible pump having an associated supply cable extending from the well surface to the downhole location for supplying electric current to the pump, the pump also having an inlet port for receiving well water and having an outlet port for supplying water to the surface location by means of intervening plumbing;wherein the submersible pump is a multi-stage, regenerative turbine pump which has a plurality of regenerative turbine stages arranged in-line along a vertical axis generally parallel to a central axis of the wellbore

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the electric submersible pump includes a pump motor with an output shaft and wherein a plurality of regenerative turbine stages are arranged in a stacked arrangement within the pump and coupled to the shaft for rotary motion as the motor drives the shaft, the regenerative turbine stages forming a regenerative turbine section of the pump.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the regenerative turbine stages include impellers separated by intermediate plates, the impellers having a series of peripheral turbine vanes located on each of opposing sides thereof for moving water through the regenerative turbine section of the pump.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein water enters the regenerative turbine section at a inlet location near an outside diameter of each impeller plate, is accelerated about the periphery of the impeller before then exiting at a radial location which is at or near the same radial location on the impeller as the inlet location.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the electric motor is powered from a harvested energy source selected from the group consisting of solar panels and windmill generated energy sources.