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Pressure transient control: Part I - Criteria for transient

analysis and control

Article  in  Building Service Engineering · June 2005

DOI: 10.1191/0143624405bt119oa

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Building Serv. Eng. Res. Technol. 26,2 (2005) pp. 99 /114

Pressure transient control: Part I * criteria for /

transient analysis and control

JA Swaffield FRSE BSc PhD CEng MCIBSE, DP Campbell BSc PhD and M Gormley MSc PhD
Drainage Research Group, School of the Built Environment, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

Pressure transient propagation is a wholly natural consequence of any change in

operating conditions for a fluid carrying system. Rapid changes in flow
conditions generate surge conditions that may result in system failure. The
analysis of these phenomena has progressed over the past 100 years from
empirical research aimed at the protection of large-scale pipeline and plant
networks to the development of computing simulations to support system
design. Pressure surge analysis is therefore a consideration in the design and
operation of all fluid systems: the objective of such an analysis being the
prediction, control and suppression of transients. This paper presents the
background to the development of surge alleviation, from traditional pipeline
protection to applications within building drainage and vent systems, thereby
stressing that the system failure consequences of transient propagation are
dependent on the particular system, independent of absolute surge pressure, and
that system protection criteria may be developed that apply regardless of the
system or the severity of the transient.
Practical application: The control of air pressure transients in building drainage
systems has been limited due to the need to attenuate positive pressure
propagation via an open termination at roof level / a poor solution as the
transient will have affected all system trap seals before reaching the relief vent.
The Positive Air Pressure Attenuator / an expandable bag that controls the rate of
change of entrained airflow within the system / reduces the possibility of trap-
seal loss due to positive transient propagation. Potentially this is a major
contribution to vent system design that could revolutionize 150 years of design
methodology.

List of Symbols e pipe wall thickness, m

f friction factor
A flow cross-sectional area, m2 K bulk Modulus fluid, N/m2
CR ,T reflection and transmission coefficients at N number of pipes at a junction
system boundaries q distributed lateral inflow, m3/s
C1 restraint condition in wave-speed calcula- S channel slope
tion T channel surface width, m
C2,3 coefficients in St Venant equations u mean airflow velocity, m/s
D pipe diameter, m V water velocity
y fluid % gas content
C , characteristics in an x-t plane
Address for correspondence: JA Swaffield, Drainage Research
c Acoustic wave velocity, m/s.
Group, School of the Built Environment, Heriot Watt E Young’s modulus N/m2
University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK. E-mail: j.a.swaffield@ F (), f() pressure waves
hw.ac.uk

# The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers 2005 10.1191/0143624405bt119oa