[en] The nuclear power industry is interested in steam-generator water hammer because it has damaged the piping and components at pressurized water reactors (PWRs). Water hammer arises when rapid steam condensation in the steam-generator feedwater inlet of a PWR causes depressurization, water-slug acceleration, and slug impact at the nearest pipe elbow. The resulting pressure pulse causes the pipe system to shake, sometimes violently. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential structural effects of steam-generator water hammer on feedwater piping. This was accomplished by finite-element computation of the response of two sections of a typical feedwater pipe system to four representative water-hammer pulses. All four pulses produced high shear and bending stresses in both sections of pipe. Maximum calculated pipe stresses varied because the sections had different characteristics and were sensitive to boundary-condition modeling