Graphical and Computer Analysis of Tailrace Surges

Two methods of analysis of surges in power canals, namely the graphical method of Bergeron and a finite-difference method based on the partial differential equations of motion, are applied to a surging situation of an engineering project for which laboratory model test results are available. For short power canals for which the effects of friction are small and the effect of gravity and inertial are significant a comparison of the results of the simple graphical method, for which bottom slope, boundary friction and finite-amplitude effects are neglected, with those of a finite-difference method, for which these effects are included, indicate that the graphical method of analysis is quite adequate for analyses of surging in short power canals.