The Chemical Engineering

Journal,

24 (1982)

217 - 221

217

Book Reviews

Centrifugal Pump Clinic

by Igor J. Karassik, published by Marcel Dekker,
New York, 1981, xiv + 496 pp., price Sfr. 90.

This practical handbook is one of a set of

six in the field of Mechanical Engineering
offered currently by this publisher. It is a
rewritten extended edition of the authors
useful Engineers Guide to Centrifugal Pumps
first issued in 1964, and the author believes
it to be a useful companion to his well known
text-book Centrifugal Pumps.
The principle followed in presentation is
that of question and extended answer, in six
collections or chapters: application, pump
construction, installation, operation, maintenance, and field troubles. Diverse problems
are covered, for example Chapter 1 begins
by discussing How far to go in preparing
pump specifications, deals at great length
with cavitation problems particularly the
influence of a number of operating parameters on system NSPH, and concludes with
a discussion of feedwater system problems.
In discussing pump construction and
installation, the author deals briefly with
important points relating to seals, bearings
and material selection, and then in much
more detail discusses suction and sump design
points, and the principles underlying control
and bypass valves, and strainers.
In the chapters relating to operation and
maintenance the question and answer technique is used to advantage in dealing with
such common problems as checking pump
rotation, monitoring pump condition and
performance, overhaul life, checking running
clearances without pump stripping, and
similar routine checks. The field troubles
chapter covers necessary documentation,
effects of air entrainment, reverse rotation,
elementary noise diagnosis techniques, wear
and effect of solids in suspension and abrasion
generally, and problems associated with
corrosion and erosion.
The book is thus useful, not as a pump
text-book (which its author does not claim)
but as an exposition of pump problems, their
0300-9467/82/0000-0000/$02.75

diagnosis, and their cure. It will prove of use

to plant and operating engineers, to design
engineers involved in pump application, and
to engineering graduates who will find its
sometimes conversational style and clear
thinking logic in suggested solutions a very
valuable complement to their academic
training. The only drawback for the engineer
who must deal in SI and associated metric
quantities is that all dimensions are expressed
in the American foot, gallon, minute system,
but this is a small hardship to set alongside
the clear exposition of the experience of a
lifetime practising pump engineer.
K. TURTON

Practical Size Enlargement

by C. E. Capes, Volume 1 of Handbook of Powder
Technology, J. C. Williams and T. Allen (eds.)
published by Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1980; xii + 192 pp., price
$45.00

The book, on a topic of growing technological importance, reviews the multitude of

size enlargement techniques used in industry
and presents them for the first time in a concise unified way. The eight chapters of the
book are dedicated five to each of the important enlargement techniques such as tumbling,
mixing and pressure, thermal and dispersion
methods, one to agglomeration in liquid
media and two chapters to general considerations and theoretical approaches to
agglomeration.
After a short introduction in Chapter 1 the
author proceeds to summarize in Chapter 2
the important concepts of bonding mechanisms and the theoretical prediction of tensile
strength of agglomerates. Emphasis is given to
intermolecular bonds and bonds due to
(liquid) bridging. Theoretical studies on
agglomeration due to high temperatures and
pressures are also mentioned.
The following five chapters, some very well
written like agglomeration using agitation
methods, contain a detailed description of
0 Elsevier Sequoia/Printed in The Netherlands