Water Hammer Training

Learning objectives

• Understand the physics of transient flows and water hammer.
• Identify the causes of the phenomenon in an installation: valve closure, pump trip, start-up, rupture.
• Analyse the consequences: overpressure, underpressure, cavitation, equipment fatigue.
• Select, size and implement appropriate protection devices.

Syllabus

Day 1 — Understanding the phenomenon

• Introduction to transient flows in hydraulics: wave celerity, inertia and compressibility.
• Water hammer theory: origins and mechanisms, Joukowski formula, critical closure time.
• Calculation methods: basic equations and Bergeron diagrams.
• Case studies: water hammer incidents in drinking water, industry and energy.

Day 2 — Preventing and protecting

• Protection devices: relief valves, air vessels and surge tanks, surge shafts and standpipes, flywheels, air valves.
• Selection criteria and sizing of protections.
• Tutorials: calculations applied to typical networks.
• Numerical simulation: introduction to water hammer modelling (for example with Simcenter FloMaster).
• Summary and assessment.

Day 3 (optional) — Applied to your networks

• Analysis of a case brought by the participants: assumptions, calculation, choice of a protection.
• Writing a calculation note and an action plan.

Audience and prerequisites

Design-office engineers and technicians, water and process network operators, maintenance managers and project managers in energy, industry or civil engineering. Prerequisites: basic fluid mechanics (flow rate, pressure, pressure losses).

Teaching methods and assessment

Course materials, corrected exercises, calculation tutorials, simulation demonstrations, end-of-course assessment reviewed by Numersalis, certificate of completion.

Why train with Numersalis?

Our engineers handle hydraulic transients in their fluid and process simulation studies, particularly for the energy sector: the course is built on real cases and on the calculation tools we use on projects.