Pressure Surges in Pipelines Carrying Viscous Liquids

Abstract

An analytical solution which includes frictional effects is developed for the pressure occurring in a pipeline when Poiseuille flow is stopped by the sudden closure of a valve. Limitations and deficiencies of past solutions of the same problem have been overcome in the present analysis. It is shown that for most pipelines of practical interest the pressure is given by the sum of four traveling waves multiplied by a time-decaying exponential; evaluation is easily accomplished with a few simple slide-rule calculations. The computed pressures are shown to compare closely with experimental measurements.