Owing to their impressive properties reciprocating positive displacement pumps are used in many applications. Pumping fluids at high delivery pressures and metering are the areas of frequent use. The design of reciprocating pumps requires an exact knowledge of the appearing phenomena such as unacceptable pipeline pulsation and harmful cavitation. But cavitation in reciprocating positive displacement pumps is still an insufficiently understood problem. For a better understanding of the effects of incipient, partial and full cavitation in reciprocating positive displacement pumps high-speed camera measurements were done under real operating conditions using a horizontal single-acting plunger pump. Inspection windows were placed to capture all cavitation phenomena. Exemplarily the cavitation phenomena and their erosive potential are to be described on the basis of high-speed sequences for selected cavitation conditions. Also the mechanism of the incipient cavitation and the opening of the self acting valves could be clearly investigated with this experimental setup. Standards and guidelines were discussed concerning the economical operating of reciprocating positive displacement pumps.
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