Experimental and Numerical Study of Air Vessel in Quasi-Two-Dimensional Transient Flow Analysis

An air vessel is a simple and effective device for protecting a pipeline system from abnormal pressure events. In order to design and select a suitable air vessel, analysis of the pipeline system is necessary. A quasi-2D approach can overcome some of the limitations of the conventional one-dimensional transient flow analysis method. However, only a few hydraulic components can be implemented in the quasi-2D approach. In this study, we propose a methodology for applying an air vessel in the quasi-2D model. An experimental study is performed for validating the proposed model. Although an identical approach involving an accumulator model is used to model the air vessel as in the 1D model, the quasi-2D model shows improved performance for the experimental system.