This study investigates the hydraulic performance of a water wheel driven spiral pump operating under low-head open channel flow conditions. The effects of water wheel diameter, flow velocity, and lifting head on discharge characteristics were analyzed using analytical and empirical methods. The obtained results showed that the discharge decreased exponentially from 0.108 m³/s to 0.013 m³/s when the lifting head increased from 0.5 m to 10 m. In addition, increasing the wheel diameter from 0.5 m to 2.0 m increased the discharge from 0.026 m³/s to 0.190 m³/s. The obtained fitting models demonstrated high accuracy with determination coefficients of R² = 0.997 and R² = 1.000. The results confirmed that optimal selection of wheel diameter and flow parameters significantly improves the efficiency of spiral pumping systems for irrigation applications in remote areas without electricity supply.
Publication Date: 2026-06-21