Experimental Investigation on Rapid Filling of a Large-Scale Pipeline
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 11
Abstract
This study presents the results from detailed experiments of the two-phase pressurized flow behavior during the rapid filling of a large-scale pipeline. The physical scale of this experiment is close to the practical situation in many industrial plants. Pressure transducers, water-level meters, thermometers, void fraction meters, and flow meters were used to measure the two-phase unsteady flow dynamics. The main focus is on the water–air interface evolution during filling and the overall behavior of the lengthening water column. It is observed that the leading liquid front does not entirely fill the pipe cross section; flow stratification and mixing occurs. Although flow regime transition is a rather complex phenomenon, certain features of the observed transition pattern are explained qualitatively and quantitatively. The water flow during the entire filling behaves as a rigid column as the open empty pipe in front of the water column provides sufficient room for the water column to occupy without invoking air compressibility effects. As a preliminary evaluation of how these large-scale experiments can feed into improving mathematical modeling of rapid pipe filling, a comparison with a typical one-dimensional rigid-column model is made.
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Acknowledgments
The project Transient vaporous and gaseous cavitation in pipelines carried out at Deltares, Delft, the Netherlands, was funded through EC-HYDRALAB III Contract 022441 (R113) by the European Union. The authors like to express their sincere gratitude to staff at Deltares: Dr. Arno Kruisbrink, Dr. Christof Lubbers, and Dr. Hugo Hartmann for their help in the preparation of the project HYIII-Delft-4; and Richard Tuin, Martin Boele, and Theo Ammerlaan for their expert technical advices during the measurement periods. The first author is grateful to the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for financially supporting his Ph.D. studies at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. The support in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61233009) and National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2013CB329301) is highly appreciated too. The sixth author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Slovenian Research Agency.
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 11 • November 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 22, 2013
Accepted: Apr 23, 2014
Published online: Jul 9, 2014
Published in print: Nov 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 9, 2014
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