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Corresponding Author

Nile, Ahmed

Subject Area

Mechanical Power Engineering

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

In the present paper, the continuity and momentum equations were solved using the Method of Characteristics to simulate the water hammer phenomenon taking into account the effect of pipe wall viscoelasticity and unsteady friction of fluid flow. In order to study the effect of extended blockage existence in the pipeline, a MATLAB code was developed to deal with both cases: simple single pipeline and compound series pipes. Because of the vital role that boundary conditions play in the profile of the generated pressure wave, they were mentioned in this paper. Code developed was validated with previous experimental data for the case of single pipe and for compound pipeline. In addition to that, a simple Reservoir- Pipe-Valve test rig was constructed using PVC pipe. The experimental data extracted from the test rig were compared with the numerical results of the code for both simple and complex pipelines. The code could predict the pressure head fluctuations quite accurately in the case of simple pipe. However, in case of complex series pipeline, it could predict the maximum pressure head for the first two peaks, but a phase shift was noticed after the second peak and progressively increased with time. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to investigate the effect of changing some essential parameters on the pressure wave profile.

Keywords

Water Hammer; Method Of Characteristics; viscoelastic pipes; extended partial blockage

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