Components of Hydraulic Ram
A hydraulic ram installation consists of a supply, a drive pipe, theram, a supply line and usually a storage tank. These are shown inFigure 1. Each of these component parts is discussed below:
Supply. The intake must be designed to keep trash and sandout of the supply since these can plug up the ram. If the water is notnaturally free of these materials, the intake should be screened or a settlingbasin provided. When the source is remote from the ram site, the supplyline can be designed to conduct the water to a drive pipe as shown in Figure2. The supply line, if needed, should be at least one pipe diameterlarger than the drive pipe.
Drive pipe. The drive pipe must be made of a non-flexiblematerial for maximum efficiency. This is usually galvanized ironpipe, although other materials cased in concrete will work. In order toreduce head loss due to friction, the length of the pipe divided by thediameter of the pipe should be within the range of 150-1,000. Table2 shows the minimum and maximum pipe lengths for various pipe sizes.