Water Hammer Pressure Transients in a Closed Loop System

The effects of fluid transients, or water hammer, in closed loop systems are somewhat different than those observed in open ended systems. The open loop system has received much attention in the literature, not so for the closed system. The generally accepted method of characteristics (MOC) technique was applied herein to investigate closed loop systems. The magnitudes of the pressures during fluid transients were investigated for examples of rapid valve closures, and the operations of parallel pumps. The effects of trapped air in the system were also considered for these examples. To reduce the pressures caused by the transients, the installation of slow closing valves were evaluated for different conditions.