The Role of Universities Within the Qualification and Verification Process of EuP Requirements for Turbomachines using the Example of Rotodynamics Pumps

Fan Efficiency Metric & Market Surveillance

The Chair of Fluid Systems has a long tradition in consulting and supporting European pump manufacturers as well as related associations in developing appropriate methods to qualify products in respect to their energy efficiencies, in order to meet the EuP requirement legislated by the European Commission.
Although it was one of the priority objectives of the developer to provide simple to use and clearly described procedures it is important to have sufficient expert knowledge as well as a suitable infrastructure to carry out profound verification tests. During the phase of product qualification, which normally is in the responsibility of the manufacturers respectively the company who places the product on the market, these skills should be available. Another situation arises in the case of verification. That means, if any market participant expresses reasonable doubt concerning the declared efficiency values and hence the market surveillance has to act. Because of the fact that the market surveillance is responsible for all issues concerning the conformity of products it is obvious that they have to do a great task, which needs a lot of expert knowledge and in many cases access to complex test facilities to carry out practical verification tests.
Besides general EuP related issues concerning the qualification approaches for rotodynamic pumps this paper demonstrates a practical example how universities can support the work of market surveillance by providing their neutral scientific expertise as well as their infrastructure in the frame of product verification. This example based on the work achieved within a small pilot project funded by the ministry of environment of Baden-Württemberg respectively the affiliated market surveillance authority. The project consists of a round robin test to verify the MEI (Minimum Efficiency Index) of a single stage end suction centrifugal pump that was taken from the market and provided by the market surveillance authority of Baden-Württemberg. The MEI value is the currently valid figure to qualify rotodynamic water pumps concerning their energy consumption. Besides the Chair of Fluid Systems three further university institutes, all with appropriate expertise in hydraulic turbomachinery, were involved in the round robin test.
The approaches concerning the support of market surveillance highlighted in this paper are not only limited to the field of hydraulic turbomachines, they can also be applied to the verification process of fans where the challenges for the market surveillance authorities are similar in the majority of cases.