This paper examines the extreme water hammer in the Al-Kifil water transmission pipeline in Iraq, which is a key infrastructure project that could be exposed to harmful pressure jumps. The transient analysis was performed in more detail with the use of the specialized engineering software AFT Impulse to simulate the behavior of the system in case of the abrupt shutdown of the pump during the unprotected conditions. It was observed in the simulation that there were extreme pressure oscillations whereby the highest stagnation pressure was 17.043 bar and the lowest pressure was close to the vacuum (0.028 bar) and strong formation of vapor cavities (up to 1.234 m³), which implies that the risks of fatigue, cavitation and structural failure of the pipes are high. In order to prevent these impacts, the proposed study modeled the installation of a 2.2 m³ hydropneumatic surge tank (SERECO SACA022-18). The findings indicate the outstanding effectiveness of this tank whereby the peak pressure is reduced by the ratio of about 82% to 3.112 bar and the lowest pressure is maintained well above the vapour pressure (> 0.89 bar), and the vapour is completely suppressed. This stabilization took a short time, and pressure oscillations dropped to within 2% of steady-state levels in a few seconds. This study justifies the application of the high-level numerical modelling in the form of transient analysis and presents a time-tested, case-specific mitigation strategy that promotes the structural integrity and operative integrity of the pipeline pipe, a great solution for the similar water transmission systems in the semi-arid areas.
Nile et al. (Sun,) studied this question.