Experimental Study of Water Hammer Pressure in a Commercial Pipe

Abstract

Water hammer is a phenomenon caused by change in flow velocity and valve closing/opening time. It is undesirable. It causes because pressure transient in the pipe, vibration and noise. Excessive pressure causes pipe fracture by rupture. A review of literature has shown that earlier researchers concentrated more on the analysis of water hammer by method of characteristic while comparative study of method of water hammer analysis is insufficient. In the present study experimental and analytical analysis of water hammer pressure in a commercial pipe has been studied and analyzed. Method of characteristic (MOC), arithmetic method, theoretical method and experimental method are used in this thesis. In MOC, an element-wise definition is used for all the devices that may be used in a pipeline system and the corresponding equations are derived in an element-wise manner. The proper equations defining the behavior of each device including pipes are derived and assembled to form the final system of equations to be solved for the unknown nodal heads. Used method allows for any arbitrary combination of devices in the pipeline system. MOC was concluded it is superior to other methods.