Use of air chambers against waterhammer in penstocks

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, İnşaat Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2011

Öğrenci: BİRAND ADAL

Danışman: İSMAİL AYDIN

Özet:

All pipeline systems are susceptible to water hammer that can cripple critical infrastructure. One effective method to relieve excessive waterhammer pressures in pipelines is to use air chambers. This study aims to develop an empirical procedure for the quick analysis of penstock-turbine systems to determine dimensions and operating conditions of air-chambers that can effectively diminish the transient phenomena after sudden changes of flow rate in the system. A numerical study has been carried out by obtaining repeated solutions for variable system parameters using a commercial software. The relief brought by air chambers is found to approach to an asymptotic value for increasing chamber volumes. It is possible to determine the required chamber volume for a given discharge to limit the waterhammer pressures at a prescribed level in a given penstock-turbine system using the charts produced in the study.