Technical Paper

A Critique of Steam Hammer Load Analysis Methods

Jul 22, 2022

Trey Walters, P.E.
Trey Walters is currently Principal, R&D, Engineering Software at Datacor. He previously founded Applied Flow Technology which is now part of Datacor. He has developed simulation software for pipe flow, system optimization, slurries, waterhammer, and pulsation modeling. He has 40 years of experience in thermal/fluid system engineering and has consulted in numerous industries including power, municipal water, oil & gas and chemicals. He holds both a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He sits on several standards committees of the Hydraulic Institute and is Chairman of their Waterhammer Committee, and he is a Fellow of the ASME.

Related Tags

Subscribe for Updates

Trey Walters, P.E., Datacor (formerly Applied Flow Technology, USA) - presented at the Proceedings of the ASME 2022 Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference PVP2022, July 17-22, 2022, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Abstract:

One of the key assumptions in modern steam hammer load analysis is based on an incomplete understanding of steam wave behavior. Compression waves generated after a valve closure steepen much more quickly than previously thought. The resulting forces generated on pipe runs separated by elbows can be significantly higher than those predicted using current methods. To be more specific, current methods may give unconservative pipe force estimates – potentially resulting in unsafe designs. Using a more complete understanding of gas wave speed, quantitative examples are given which show the larger forces which occur as a result of wave steepening.

Keywords: Steam hammer, piping loads, transient simulation, transient compressible flow