Water Hammer Characteristics for Parallel Pumps Water Supply Systems

The water hammer induced by abrupt velocity change of fluid flow is inevitable for nuclear power plant systems because of the sudden opening or closing of valves, the sudden startup or shutdown of the pumps and the rupture of pipes. The water hammer pressure wave can damage the pipes and cause the abnormal shutdown of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). The object of this study is a Parallel Pumps Water Supply system (PPWS) adopted in a NPP. The PPWS is composed of two parallel mixed-flow pumps connected with a check valve separately, a container, a throttle flap and pipe lines. The Method of Characteristic line (MOC) was adopted to evaluate the water hammer behaviors of the PPWS during the alternate startup and shutoff conditions of two parallel pumps. A code was developed using Fortran language to compute the transient behaviors including he peak pressure, the flow velocity and the movement of the valve plate. The results indicate that the water hammer behaviors under low speed startup condition differ from that of high speed startup condition. The maximum pressure vibration amplitude is up to 5.0MPa occurring under high-high speed startup condition. The computation results are instructive for the optimization design of the PPWS so as to minimize the damage potential induced by water hammer.