Author(s)

M. Huygens, R. Verhoeven and L. Van Poucke

Abstract

In common waterhammer design, a detailed two-phase flow calculation is too demanding to preserve a handsome numerical tool. Nevertheless, implosion of gas or air bubbles in pressurized conduits introduces extra shock waves. As a result, possible fatigue corrosion or pipe instability strengthen the safety demands. Air inlet valves as a protection device enter air into a pipe system, by this reducing the transient wave celerity and the magnitude of the shock wave. Therefore, the impact of air entrainment on the waterhammer phenomena is studied to reveal its relative importance. Detailed calculations with an extended two-phase model reveal only small differences in absolute underpressure values in comparison with the traditional one-phase waterhammer design calculations. 1 In

Keywords