Abstract
A booster station in a long distance hydraulic capsule pipeline is simulated mathematically to study the hydraulic transients caused by the periodic closing and opening of the valves present in the pipeline design (Du and Nair, 1995, 1996). The Method of Characteristics is used for the dynamic simulation studies, performed to help design and size part of the booster station subsystem. Several modifications to the pump bypass station configuration of the booster station have been studied. Under the criterion of eliminating column separation and reducing flow reversals, a configuration with several centrifugal pumps connected in series, and a carefully sized air chamber are found to be optimal. A valve stroking method is designed to eliminate column separation and the design results in an acceptable flow reversal in the main pipe. The simulation results match in general behavioral terms with limited experimental studies performed on a small scale experimental capsule pipeline system.
