Waterhammer in the Transmission Pipeline with an Air Chamber

The field tests on the waterhammer were carried out in the pump pipeline system with an air chamber. The effects of the input variables and the design parameters for the air chamber were investigated by both the numerical calculations and the experiments. Because the waterhammer problems as a result of the pump power failure were the most important, these situations were carefully studied. Among the input variables used in the waterhammer analysis, the polytropic exponent, the discharge coefficient and the wavespeed had influence on the simulated results in that order, and were calibrated in comparison with the experimental results. As the initial air volume in a vessel increased, the period of waterhammer increased and the pressure variation decreased, resulting from the reduction of the rate of pressure change in the air chamber. Using smaller orifice in the bypass pipe, the pressure rise was suppressed in some degree and the pressure surge was dissipated more rapidly as time passed. The simulations were in fairly good agreement with the measured values until 1∼2 periods of waterhammer. Not only the maximum and minimum pressures in the pipe1ine but also those occurring times were reasonably predicted. The computer program developed in this study will be useful in designing the optimum parameters of an air chamber for the real pump pipeline system.

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