Computation of water hammer protection of modernized pumping station

Abstract

Pumping station supplies water for irrigation. Maximal capacity 2 × 1.2m3·s−1 became insufficient, thus it was upgraded to 2 × 2m3·s−1. Paper is focused on design of protection against water hammer in case of sudden pumps trip. Numerical simulation of the most dangerous case (when pumps are giving the maximal flow rate) showed that existing air vessels were not able to protect the system and it would be necessary to add new vessels. Special care was paid to influence of their connection to the main pipeline, because the resistance of the connection has a significant impact on the scale of pressure pulsations. Finally, the pump trip was performed to verify if the system worked correctly. The test showed that pressure pulsations are lower (better) than computation predicted. This discrepancy was further analysed.