Waterhammer solution

One of the toughest aspects of hydraulic system design is accepting that a system cannot always operate at steady state. Whether system transients are intentional or unintentional, routine or emergency, understanding a transient’s impact on a system is critical to ensuring safe, continuous operation.

Due to their esoteric nature, waterhammer issues are typically addressed by specialist consulting companies. Thus, Applied Flow Technology has released AFT Impulse 9 for engineering teams to better understand their systems during deviations from steady state. Waterhammer and surge analysis performed in AFT Impulse helps mitigate failures and avoid downtime by providing the information necessary to prevent incidents. New features in AFT Impulse 9 include:

• A redesigned Gas Accumulator window to improve usability and add new features such as calculating liquid height
• Improved multi-scenario graphing to compare and animate design alternatives with different time steps
• Options to convert Shear Rheometer data for Power Law and Bingham Plastic viscosity models
• The Herschel-Bulkley viscosity model for shear thinning or thickening fluids with a yield stress
• A streamlined setup from the new Analysis Setup menu, a user-friendly workflow condensing several model-wide specification windows into one
• An overhauled Library Manager (previously the Database Manager) offering a consolidated way to access and customize libraries of fluids, pipe materials, components, etc.
• Color-coded, organized, and prioritized list for warnings, errors, and Design Alerts shown in the Output for quick review

Often a concern with waterhammer and surge analysis is where to start, especially since rapid transient events are not covered in a typical undergraduate (or even graduate) fluids course. In the past few years, AFT has noticed greater interest in waterhammer from engineers hoping to understand this complex phenomenon. AFT has developed materials to meet this interest, not only for advanced topics like identifying and mitigating waterhammer by modeling in software, but also introductory fundamentals and theory to help engineers understand the what and why of waterhammer analysis.

Engineers of all experience levels looking to expand their waterhammer knowledge can find out more at www.waterhammer.com