The dynamic characteristics of reciprocating pump–pipeline system are directly affected by the fluid–mechanism dynamic interaction related to the slider-crank mechanism, valves and pipes conveying fluid. In this article, the fluid–mechanism interaction and nonlinearities involved in the kinetic of slider-crank mechanism, the motions of pump valves and the dynamic transmission in pipeline are explored for the nonlinear dynamic modeling of reciprocating pump–pipeline interaction systems. The nonlinear fluid–mechanism coupling model and corresponding analysis procedure are presented for investigating the system dynamic characteristics at all operating conditions. An experiment platform consisting of a simplex plunger reciprocating pump and suction and discharge pipes with a flow control valve is established to validate the proposed model. By the comparisons of pressure pulsations under multi-working conditions, the results obtained from the proposed model show good agreement with the test data. The dynamic characteristic of pump, as well as the effects of interaction and nonlinearity on the flow pulsation, are studied with the proposed model. It is found that nonlinear factors such as joint clearance and nonlinear spring stiffness are of great importance to the lag characteristics of pump valves and the pressure pulsation of pump–pipe system. The amplitudes of pressure pulsation increase with the decrease of control valve opening nonlinearly, and the effect of flow control valve becomes significant when the opening is less than 40%.
