Mathematical Simulation of Cavitation
with Column Separation in Pressurized
Pump Pipeline Systems
Nerella Ruben and Erva Venkatarathnam
Abstract Hydraulic transient analysis is important in design stage as well as the
execution stage of pipeline systems for diagnosis of problems arises due to pipe
burst, pipe collapses and leakages. The calculations necessary to analyse transient
conditions must be very precise, more realistic and less time consuming. To fulfill
this objective, a suitable mathematical model incorporating different components that
simulates the real physical phenomenon is the need of hour. In this paper, column
separation model called Discrete Vapour Cavitation Model (DVCM) is described
and applied to a reference problem that consists of pump pipeline system. The cal-
culations of this model are compared with calculations of the reference problem
by conventional Method of Characteristics (MOC) approach. The results show that
MOC could not able to capture the real physical phenomenon of cavitation with
water column separation due to drawbacks in basic modelling.
Keywords Hydraulic transients · Water column separation · Method of
characteristics
1 Introduction
In the water field, mathematical modelling of water distribution systems has become
a necessary component to analyse, design and diagnose the systems. The numerical
representation of the water installation components leads to optimized and efficient
safe design of the systems. Thus, the numerical models allow greater reliability and
command over the entire system operation. Nowadays, the simulations of hydraulic
N. Ruben (B )
Vignan’s Foundation for Science, Technology and Research,
Guntur 522213, AP, India
e-mail: rubennerella2512@gmail.com
E. Venkatarathnam
National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal 506001, TS, India
e-mail: e.venkatarathnam@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019
D. Srinivasacharya and K. S. Reddy (eds.), Numerical Heat Transfer
and Fluid Flow, Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1903-7_45
393