Better Pumps: Reliable Handpump Infrastructure

Approximately 90 million people in Africa lack access to safe drinking water, despite having water infrastructure installed in their community. The India Mark II and the Afridev handpumps are among the most widely used handpumps in the world. Sadly, studies show that approximately 30% of these handpumps are non-operational due to failures of the bearings, seals, head flange, and other common components. The Better Pumps team of the Collaboratory provides engineering support for partners who are working to improve handpump sustainability. We partnered with Tony Beers and AlignedWorks to validate a bearing test methodology for the India Mark II handpump. By modifying the loading conditions in our handpump test machine, we were able to replicate failures observed by AlignedWorks in a field trial of their bearing design. We partnered with Matt Schwiebert and Living Water International to test new seal designs for the India Mark II and Afridev handpumps and to measure head flange deflections in the India Mark II handpump. Seal performance data collected by the team was used to validate a new design in advance of field trials by Living Water International. Head flange deflection data was collected for partner benchmarking of their computational analysis. Test methodologies and results are reported.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2021/1000/thumbnail.jp