Modeling of Transient Flow in Pipeline Systems Using Incremental Differential Quadrature Method

Our objective in this paper is to introduce the detailed implementation and performance of a new method so called Incremental Differential Quadrature Method (IDQM) for modeling transient flow in pipelines. The basics of IDQM, its structure, and the formulation of the method for numerical simulation of transient flow in pipelines are discussed. The results obtained from this numerical exercise are compared with the method of characteristics and experimental data. The test case studies show that the best structure for IDQM solution is cosine grid distribution. In terms of viscous damping, the inclusion of unsteady friction term in the governing equations can improve the results significantly. This study demonstrates that IDQM can be regarded as a new alternative for numerical solution of transient flow such as water hammer in pipelines. IDQM is highly implicit in nature which makes the method unconditionally stable. It gives accurate results using few grid points.