eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Mechanical Engineering 2013-06-23 1 1 113 118 10.12691/ajme-1-5-2 AJME2013152 article Mohamed F. Khalil 1 2 Sadek Z. Kassab 2 Ahmed A. Abdel Naby 2 3 Aly Azouz azouz19680409@yahoo.com 3 4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lebanese International University, Beirut, Lebanon The present study is predicting, by deducing empirical correlations, the effect of varying the operating parameters on the performance of a pumping system handling water hyacinth. Pump suction inclination angle, water height above pump inlet, inlet suction cone diameter, pump flow rate, number of cutter blades, with/without scrapper, plant parts and water hyacinth concentration are the operating parameters. The recovery rate and the effectiveness of pumping system the two most important parameters displayed the performance of the pumping system, are predicted by empirical correlations as function of these operating parameters. Sets of published experimental data in the open literature were used to obtain these empirical correlations. Three different cases are studied. In each case two equations are deduced, one for The recovery rate and the other for the effectiveness of pumping system. These cases covered the pumping system working conditions. The empirical correlations are obtained by using the least squares method (Regression analysis). Comparisons are performed between the results obtained, for The recovery rate and the effectiveness of pumping system, using the deduced empirical correlations and the used experimental data. Finally, general empirical correlations, cover practical operating pumping system ranges, are obtained and show reasonable agreement with the experimental data. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajme/1/5/2/ajme-1-5-2.pdf empirical correlations pumping system performance water hyacinth