Waterhammer damper

To add a new waterhammer damper, click the button  of Components toolbar and select the equipment type "Waterhammer damper" (or use the corresponding item of "Insert - Component - Equipment" menu). Please note that the new component is added to the project tree after the currently selected element. Therefore, to add a new component after an existing one, select it in the project tree or in the graphic window and add the new component. If you need to add a new component to the beginning of a branch, select the branch in the project tree and add the new component.

The waterhammer damper element is used to model the so-called "gas accumulators" designed to smooth out shock waves at waterhammer. This gas accumulator is a vessel, part of which is filled with working fluid, part with gas (usually air). The phases in this vessel are separated either by a soft rubber membrane, or a light piston, or the phase boundary can be open. The compressed gas in the vessel serves as a damper, smoothing out sharp pressure surges.

Since the damper does not have any effect on the operation of the pipeline in a steady state, dampers can be omitted when performing steady state flow calculations (isothermal flow analysis,heat calculation etc.).

After adding a waterhammer damper, its characteristics will be displayed in the Object Properties Window:

• name - by default, the name of any piping component coincides with its type, but if necessary, the name can be changed in this field. When changing the hydraulic component type (when selecting different types of equipment), its name will also change, but only if it has not been previously changed to another manually. Specify the name that you would like to see for this element in reports with calculation results. To display the name of a pipeline element on the diagram, click the corresponding button to the right of its name;

• total volume of a damper and gas volume in it - please note that the initial volume of gas in the vessel should be specified as the "Gas volume";

• orifice area - the cross-section area of the nozzle connecting the damper to the pipeline. If the cross-section of the nozzle is the same as that of the pipeline, enter -1 in this field.