Vertical Turbine Pump Strainer Problem

Take a well point and set it in the stream upside down. Suck from the bottom of the well point.

You need a larger suction chamber covered with a trash screen that is removeable. I doubt any backflush will be all that successful.

" I doubt any backflush will be all that successful."

Why?

This method is use for large water features with ponds as the water source.

"You need a larger suction chamber covered with a trash screen that is removeable"

I agree, that is why I mentioned it.

Backflush works poorly for that type of material - been there and done that. Works good with fine material but not with bags, sticks and that type of debris. Quote, 'You could increase the effective area of the strainer with another basket outside to increase the time between clogging.' Insecure? What I mentioned and what I read in your post are not the same thing in my mind.

I agree with russ123. You'll need to provide some sort of trash rack along an inlet channel that must be constructed before the pump suction chamber. Make sure that you install an automatically raked trash rack if at all possible. If you have Zebra Mussel problems in your river, then you had better install a rack constructed with bars made of some sort of plastic-based material that is highly resistant to allowing the formation of the critters on the rack (such as fiberglass or another advanced polymer plastic).

If you cannot enlarge the pump suction chamber (if it even exists, or are you sucking directly out of the river?) and are having sludge/sediment problems, then I suggest that you install some air blowers that are coupled to air supply drop-headers and submerged coarse bubble diffusers in order to keep the sediments in suspension. This type of equipment is usually found in Activated Sludge Aeration Tanks of wastewater treatment plants.

If you need to remove the sediment from the intake water that's being pumped, then you can install micro-strainer equipment installed on the pump discharge that use the pumps differential water pressure to strain the water and automatically backflush the strainer equipment. There is equipment on the market that can micro-strain raw untreated water down to less than 0.1 microns if that is required for, say processed water used in manufacturing etc. This piece of equipment typically does not use electricity to operate it, except possibly low voltage DC power for some solenoid or SCADA operations.....depends on the actual manufacturer's equipment.

None of these improvements will be inexpensive to implement, but you don't have too many options that are left available due to the pre-existing conditions of your current installation, which to me may well appear to be ill-conceived in the first place.

Exactly how dirty is the river water typically? Is there a large amount of suspended solids present in the water due to silt?

I hope that this advice helps you out. If you have any questions pertaining to the aforementioned dialog please don't hesitate to ask questions, okay? Good luck!

Signed,

CaptMoosie, PhD/LPE

Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineer

My apologies to everyone, I mistakenly took the "Any suggestions to flush out the clogging materials in situ." to mean flush and in situ.

Please disregard any suggestions.

When someone asks for something that can not be done - what to do? Offer suggestions on how to do it? I think not.

OK.

Self cleaning filter might work which can be found at www.industrialpumps.nl

This unit would have little success against the kind of crap that can come down a river.