Development of the Hydraulic Design for the Grand Coulee Pumps

The Grand Coulee pumping plant has been the subject of an extensive hydraulic research program. The first part of this program was conducted at The California Institute of Technology for the Bureau of Reclamation from January, 1938, to July, 1940. Some of the results of this program have already been published (1 to 4), and other papers (5, 6) describe the different features of this project. This paper presents some of the results of continued experimental research of the author’s company from 1943 to 1946. The investigation covered the effects of various diffuser-type pump cases and impellers on the pump characteristics of the Grand Coulee model. The paper concludes with the description of the final test of the contractor’s model completed in July, 1947.