Profile-Induced Column Separation and Rejoining during Rapid Pipeline Filling

Abstract

Water column separation during rapid pipeline filling is numerically explored using a one-dimensional (1D) model that employs the method of characteristics to solve the governing equations and the well-known discrete gas cavity model (DGCM) to represent column separation. Extensive numerical experiments helped to identify the conditions under which column separation may occur during the rapid filling and to gain a physical sense of when the local rejoining pressures can be most severe. The major findings are that local