Unsteady Flow in Hydraulic Networks with Polymeric Additional Pipe

Abstract

This paper presents results of an experimental and theoretical study on the use of a high density polyethylene (HDPE) additional pipe inserted downstream of a pump in a hydraulic network as a surge suppressor. The experiments consistently show a reduction of the oscillations with respect to the case without a HDPE device, while in the case of a single pumping pipeline the oscillations can be amplified for small volumes of the additional pipe. Previously calibrated mechanical parameters are considered in the mathematical models whose results are compared with experimental results. Both linear elastic and Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic behavior of the pipe material and both one-dimensional (1D) and quasi-2D flow models are taken into account. The numerical results show that the viscoelastic model better describes the phenomenon, but the elastic model adequately estimates the maximum and minimum oscillations. Furthermore, the results of the quasi-2D model are in better agreement with the experimental maximum and minimum oscillations than those of the 1D model, but the differences are less important than in the case of networks without a HDPE device.