Two-dimensional simulation of emptying manoeuvres in water pipelines with admitted air

ABSTRACT

This study examines the impact of sub-atmospheric pressures in water pipelines during emptying manoeuvres with air admitted. Previous research has looked at this issue but has not studied it in detail. This research presents a two-dimensional model using the OpenFOAM software to analyse different emptying manoeuvres in a single pipeline with entrapped air. The results show the sensitivity of the ball valve opening percentage, which show that absolute pressure drop can reduce to 23% for each 5% of ball valve opening percentage. The influence of the size of the entrapped air pocket and different air-admission orifices was also analysed. The numerical model showed that the selection of the percentage and times of opening drainage valves in pipelines with air-admission orifices is crucial in controlling sub-atmospheric pressure conditions. Finally, this study demonstrates the ability of the two-dimensional model to show the sensitivity of hydraulic drainage parameters in pipelines with entrapped air.

KEYWORDS:

• Air inflow
• computational fluid dynamics
• sub-atmospheric pressures
• emptying process
• inlet nozzle height

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.