Numerical investigation of effective surge tank dimensions in hydropower plants under various hydraulic conditions


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

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

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2013

Öğrenci: PINAR BERBEROĞLU

Danışman: ZAFER BOZKUŞ

Özet:

In water conveyance systems, sudden changes in the flow velocity cause a phenomenon called waterhammer associated with high pressure head changes. Unless a control device is used as a precaution, waterhammer may result in costly damages and even in some cases, loss of human lives. In light of this concept, different control devices that can protect the systems against waterhammer are introduced so that the great pressure differences are absorbed and the system is maintained undamaged. In this thesis, the main functions, the requirements for its construction and the different types of the surge tanks are explained. The governing differential equations defining the flow conditions of the surge tanks and their solutions are provided. In addition, for the use of design engineers a procedure to determine proper dimensions of a surge tank is developed. For the sake of dimensioning the surge tank effectively, empirical equations, which calculate the height of three different types of surge tanks with dimensionless parameters, are obtained. With the help of regression analysis, the correlation between the parameters of the developed equations are determined, and found to be relatively high. Finally, the economical aspect of a surge tank is discussed and comparison parameters are introduced to the designer.