Surge Tank Behavior in the Presence of a Traveling Pressure Wave

Abstract

This study analyzes the impact of surge tank diameter and pipe friction on pressure oscillations in the penstock. The results indicate that a specific diameter was identified where pressure suppression is optimized. Increasing the diameter beyond the 7-meter tank diameter the pressure oscillation has minimal impact on Zmax. On the other hand, tunnel roughness leads to decrease in the water surface oscillation amplitude in the surge tank, suggesting that higher friction within the tunnel contributes to damping pressure waves following a linear relationship. These findings show the importance of selecting an optimal surge tank diameter and considering tunnel roughness to effectively manage pressure surges in hydraulic systems. Future work could explore the impact of tunnel materials and surge tank configurations on pressure oscillation behavior. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMENDATIONS The figure 7 denotes the relationship between Zmax and friction factor. The simulation demonstrated that as tunnel roughness increases, the friction factor increases, leading to a decrease in Zmax, which suggests that the increased friction helps to slow down and reduce the pressure fluctuations within the surge tank. The observed relationship is linear. RESULT AND ANALYSIS This research aims to analyze the response of surge tanks under traveling pressure waves. The study involves measuring the maximum amplitude of mass oscillation within surge tanks of varying diameters and pipe friction levels, establishing the relationship between pipe friction and oscillation amplitude, and examining how surge tank diameter influences pressure suppression. The study found that increasing the surge tank diameter reduces the maximum water surface level (Zmax) up to a certain point, which is a diameter of 7 meter, beyond which further increases in diameter the Zmax remains almost constant. Additionally, higher tunnel roughness leads to a linear relationship between Zmax and friction factor with negative slop dampening the pressure fluctuations in an effectively way.