The Effect of Surge Tanks in the Process of the Protection towards Water Hammer Fluctuation in Long-Distance Pipelines

In the process of long-distance water transmission, as the emergence of water hammer, pipe explosion phenomena have occurred. The surge tank is a stabilizer, working in course of the hydraulic transients, supplying or discharging water to prevent the harm of water hammer in the pipeline. Due to the method of characteristics, a dynamic water hammer model is established. And the effect of the surge tank to diminish water hammer is verified with the help of calculation program Compiled. After these works, the location of the surge tank is changed to verify how the pressure of valve at the end, which generates water hammer, is changing accordingly. In addition, three different types of surge tanks were installed in the model to analyze the performance of the cylinder surge tank, the throttled surge tank, and the dual-chamber surge tank, as well as their effects of mitigating water hammer. Such work that test and verify the dynamic characteristics of the surge tank by taking advantage of the method of characteristics is very meaningful for the studies of surge tanks. The aim of this paper is to provide an effective reference for surge tanks and water hammer protection researches in the future.