An investigation for design and operational procedures to avoid water hammer in NPP piping systems

To predict waterhammer initiation due to water slug formation in the horizontal section of piping system and to calculate its impact pressure by using the results of waterhammer initiation model, waterhammer initiation model and impact pressure calculation model have been developed. In the impact pressure calculation model, the effects of water layer depth at which water slug formation and water temperature variation with time and space have been included to calculate a more realistic impact pressure. Prediction of waterhammer initiation is compared with experimental data for the various 'L' shaped pipes. The results show that the present waterhammer initiation model well predicts the waterhammer initiation boundary for inverted vertical 'L' shaped pipe filled through the horizontal pipe. Impact pressure calculated by present model also gives good agreement with the range of impact pressure of steam bubble collapse experiment. Impact pressure is calculated at the waterhammer initiation boundary by using the conditions obtained from waterhammer initiation model. From this result, it is seen that low inlet subcooling results in not only low frequency of waterhammer but also minor impact pressure if it does occur