Numerical calculation of air pressure changes in

water filling and emptying process of pressured-

pipeline with combined air valves
Chao Xue
College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower
Hohai University
Nanjing, China
eshen320@126.com
Yuan Zheng
College of Energy and Electrical
Hohai University
Nanjing, China
zhengyuan@hhu.edu.cn
AbstractIn order to research on the water filling and emptying
process of a pressured-pipeline in long distance, according to the
characteristics for the pressured-pipeline in the long distance
during the filling and emptying process, the strategies of sectional
treatment and water filling and emptying in succession were
adopted. For each segment of the pipe, a mathematical model was
established with using the ideal gas equation according to the
filling principle under the low flow rate in combination with the
characteristics of inlet and exhaust gas of an air valve. On the
basis of the definite positions of air valves and drain pipes,
calculating the air pressure changes in different pipes according
to the definite water filling discharge and different water
emptying discharges. The calculated results indicate that in
accordance with the principles of the low flow rate of water
filling, the air pressure inside the pipe is not high. The greater the
water emptying discharge, the lower the corresponding air
pressure and the higher pipe risk. These computation results can
provide safety assessment foundations for the pressured-pipeline
filling and emptying process in the long distance.
Keywords: pressured-pipeline; combined air valve; water filling
process; water emptying process; the ideal gas equation
I. INTRODUCTION
Water is the source of life, and is the irreplaceable one for
existence and development of the mankind. For the past several
years, the contradiction between water supply and demand has
already restricted the economy development all over the world.
Inter-basin long distance water transfer project is an effective
engineering measure to solve contradiction between water
supply and demand. Therefore, many countries built their inter-
basin water transfer projects, for instance, the project of
diverting water from the north to the south in Israel and Snow
Water Transfer in Australia
[1,2]
, the Moscow Canal Project in
Russia
[3]
, the Quebec Transfer Project in Canada
[4]
, the Grand
Artificial River in Libya
[5]
, and the under-construction project
of diverting water from south to north in China
[6]
. The transfer
has incomparable advantages on water delivery scale and water
quality, but its unsteady flow is very complicated, especially in
water filling and emptying process
[7]
. Wylie and Streeter
[8]
researched on the occurrence of transient flow and its
development mechanism, as well as the measures to reduce the
harm to projects, which is caused by the occurrence of transient
flow, providing the theoretical foundation of related research
for later scholars. Based on the motion equation and continuity
equation of unsteady flow in open channel, by using
Preissmann four-point implicit method, Yang et al.
[9]
did
numerical simulation analysis on water filling process of a
pressured-pipeline in combination with virtual discharge
method. By using the characteristic unit method, Zhang and
Su
[10]
presented a system method in designing the intake and
exhaust in water conveyance system. Up to now, however,
there are no literatures that show clearly how to control the
discharge during water emptying process. In this paper, several
flow discharge conditions were given in combination with
actual project situation, and then the magnitude of discharge
was determined according to air pressure and emptying time.
On the basis of the low flow rate, the air pressure changes were
studied to understand the principle of the water filling process
of a pressured-pipeline. Different flow discharge conditions
were used to find out the water emptying process of a
pressured-pipeline.
II. CHARACTERISTICS OF COMBINED AIR VALVES
Air valves play very important roles in preventing from
negative pressure in a pressured-pipeline for long-distance
water transfer. Through reasonable arrangement of air valves,
harmful air can be discharged from the pipe, and air admission
is timely in case of negative pressure, and liquid column
separation is eliminated to make the pipe safe. In long-distance
water pipeline, the numbers and means of arranging air valves
should consider the topographical conditions alongside
[11]
.
Generally an air valve should be arranged at a high point,
which is good for air discharged during water filling and air
admission during water emptying, and it also can prevent the
pipeline from cavitation and vibration. This paper researched
on a combined air valve, the type of which is D-060-NS-2S
200mm, and it is produced by ARI Liquid Equipments
Company in Israel. Its characteristic equation is shown in Eq.
(1).
3 2
3 2
3 3
y = 13.66x + 17.161x + 10.596x + 0.0003 , x 0
y = -260.4x + 51.99x + 14.899x - 0.019 , 0<x<0.2
y = 1.0554x - 2.9649x + 2.7168x - 0.088 , x 0.2

1

Where x is the relative pressure difference, (P-P
a
) /P
a
, P is
the actual air pressure in pipeline (Pa), P
a
is the atmospheric
pressure (Pa), and y is the displacement per second (m
3
/s).
1633
978-1-4244-8165-1/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE
Gas compression in pipeline can be considered as
isothermal process of change. If the time step t is very small,
the inlet and exhaust of air valves can be ignored, and then the
gas in pipeline meets the ideal gas equation.
III. WATER-FILLING MODEL
A. Establishment of mathematical model
In water filling process, if we want to know the water depth
in every section at a certain time, the relationship between the
water volume and water depth is necessary. Fig. 1 shows the
relationship between water area dA and water depth H in a
circular pipe. The calculation diagram is shown in Fig. 2.

R/T
R
dA
H

Figure 1. Vertical section of a pipeline


(horizontal di rect ion)
2R/ T
V1 (h)
V 2 (h)
V 3 ( h)
h
h
h
k
(
v
e
r
t
i
c
a
l

d
i
r
e
c
t
i
o
n
)
x
y

Figure 2. Longitudinal section of a pipeline

Through Fig. 2, we can know that
2 2
2
( ) ( ) sin(1 )
2
R R R HT
dA HT R H H arc
T T T R

= +
(2)
where R is the pipeline radius, T=cos(arctani), i is the
pipeline slope, i=tan k, k is slope angle of the pipeline () , h is
the maximum water depth of the section (m), which changes
with water surface, h is water depth (m), V
1
(h), V
2
(h) and V
3
(h)
represent the water volume (m
3
), which is related to h.
Due to the limited layout, the relationship between the
water volume and water depth is given directly, which is a
piecewise function, as shown in Eq. (3):
2
2
1
3
2
2
2
2
3 1 1
( ) 1 (1 )
2 2
2 2
(1 ) ar csin(1 ) ( ) .. ..... ..(0 )
3
( )
( ) ... .. .... . .... .. ... .. ... ...... ... .. ... .. .... . .... .( 0 )
sin(arctan )
2 2
( ) ( ) ( ). .. ... ..... ...
R h h T
V h
iT R
hT hT T R R
h h h
R R i T T
V h
R h
V h h
i
R R
V h V V h
T T

= +
+ +
=
=
=

2
. .. ... .. ... .. ..(0 )
R
h
T
















3

B. Filling flow determined
According to the low flow rate principle, filling water into a
pipeline at a low flow rate is an important method, not only for
its avoidance of water hammer, but also for its saving in the
inlet and exhaust facilities. AWWA
[12]
pointed out that if the
velocity of water filling is equal to 0.3m/s of full pipe flow or
even lower, the pipeline will not be damaged by water hammer.
It also emphasized that, in order to reduce the residual air in
pipeline and avoid water hammer, the velocity is never higher
than 0.6 m/s. According to the actual situation of project
discussed in this paper, the magnitude of discharge of tunnel is
8.482m
3
/s, corresponding to 0.3m/s of full pipe flow.
C. Calculation of air pressure
Assumed upstream water level in the filling process
remains the samewhich means sluice gate head is a constant,
and the flow of water-side gate department q unchanged.
Setting the time step is t, at time t
i
, the air volume inside the
pipeline is V
i
, the density is (
i
, and then the total mass of air is
m
i
=(
i
V
i
. After time step t, to time t
i+1
, the reduction of the
air volume is the increment of water volume V
i
=qt. At time
t
i+1
, the volume of air inside the pipeline is V
i+1
= V
i
-V
i
. From
time t
i
to time t
i+1
, the changes of gas in pipeline can be
considered as isothermal process of change, which meets the
ideal gas equation:
1 1 i i i i
P V PV
+ +

= 4

Obtaining the air pressure P
i+1
'inside the pipeline at time
t
i+1
, then inside and outside pipeline's relative differential
pressure is X
i
. According to characteristics of the air valves, the
displacement at time t
i+1
is Q
ai
. During t period, the
discharged gas quality is: m
i
= (
i
Q
ai
t. According to
conservation of mass, at time t
i+1
, the remaining gas quality in
pipeline is: m
i+1
=m
i
-m
i
=(
i+1
V
i+1.
Finally, on the basis of the ideal gas equation, which is
expressed by the quality, the air pressure P
i+1
at time t
i+1
can be
figured out, as shown in Eq. (5):
1 1
1000
i i
P RT M
+ +
= 5

where R is constant of proportionality, of which the value is
8.314410.00026J/(molK), T is the system temperature
(K), and M is the average molecular weight of air, of which the
value is about 29.
At the initial moment, i=0, water-side gate did not open,
and there was only gas in pipeline. Through the air valve, gas
was connected with the atmosphere outside the pipeline, and
1634
the gas pressure was equal to atmospheric pressure, and the
density was the same with outside.
IV. WATER-EMPTYING MODEL
A. Establishment of mathematical model
Water-emptying can be approximately regarded as the
reverse process of water-filling. But strictly speaking, it is not
the case. It depends on the specific layout of the pipeline. If the
pipes are straight sections for the same slope, water-filling and
water-emptying are mutually inverse. If there are both positive
and negative slope pipe, it is another case. Therefore, the
relationship between the water volume and water depth in
water-emptying process is not strictly equal to water-filling
process. Taking the actual situation with which this paper
combined into account, the relationship between the water
volume and water depth in emptying and filling process are the
same in this research.
B. Flow discharges determined
There are no literatures that show clearly how to control the
discharge during water emptying process. In this paper, several
flow discharges conditions were given in combination with
actual project situation, and then the magnitude of discharge
was determined according to air pressure and emptying time.
For the tunnel section, this paper enumerates the following
conditions: the flow discharges being 6,7,8,9,10,11 m
3
/s and
the drain valves fully open (unsteady flow).
C. Calculation of air pressure
At time t
i
, the mass of air inside the pipeline is m
i
=(
i
V
i
.
After time step t, to time t
i+1
, supposing q
i
is the flow
discharge of drainage pipe during this period, the increment of
the air volume is the reduction of water volume V
i
=q
i
t . At
time t
i+1
, the volume of air inside the pipeline is V
i+1
= V
i
+V
i
.
From time t
i
to time t
i+1
, the changes of gas in pipeline can be
considered as isothermal process of change, and the air
pressure P
i+1
'inside the pipeline at time t
i+1
can be calculated
with Eq. (4).
Then inside and outside pipeline's relative differential
pressure is X
i
. According to characteristics of the air valves, the
air inflow at time t
i+1
is Q
ai
. During t period, the intake gas
quality is m
i
=(
i
Q
ai
t. According to conservation of mass, at
time t
i+1
, the gas quality in pipeline is: m
i+1
=m
i
+m
i
=(
i+1
V
i+1.
Finally, on the basis of the ideal gas equation, which is
expressed by the quality, the air pressure P
i+1
at time t
i+1
can be
figured out with Eq. (5).
At the initial moment, i=0, the sluice valve did not open,
and there was only water in pipeline. The gas pressure was
equal to atmospheric pressure, and the gas density was the
same with outside.
V. MODEL APPLICATIONS
A water conveyance project in Northeast China used water
pipelines and tunnels forms, full of pressure. It is one of the
longest and the most complex projects currently in the world.
As a long pipe, the strategies of sectional treatment and water
filling in succession are adopted. After sectional treatment,
each length of pipe is about 15~30km or so. This paper only
takes the tunnel section as a research object, calculating the air
pressure changes in different pipes according to the definite
water-filling discharge and different water-emptying
discharges. Some sections of pipe conditions and node height
are shown in Fig. 3.
102
96
79
73
74.16
67.04
72.38
61.7
70.6
59.95
56.75
e
l
e
v
a
t
i
o
n

(
m
)
stake number
K30+000
30
50
70
90
0
110
K10+000 K20+000 K40+000
tunnel PCCP

Figure 3. The segmentation of partial pipeline

Combined with the previous analysis, on condition that the
water-filling discharge is definite, the variation of air volume
and air pressure of each pipe section can be calculated. Due to
layout constraints, this paper only lists the typical tunnel
section, as shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5.
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 1800
time (min)
a
i
r

v
o
l
u
m
e

(
m
^
3
)
q=8.482 (m^3/s)

Figure 4. Variation of air volume in tunnel

90000
95000
100000
105000
110000
115000
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 1800
time (min)
a
i
r

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

(
P
a
)
q=8.482 (m^3/s)

Figure 5. Variation of air pressure in tunnel

1635
As Fig. 4 shown, the relationship between air volume and
time is essentially a linear variation, which is mainly because
of air valve characteristics. As Fig. 5 shown, in accordance
with the principles of the low flow rate of water filling, the air
pressure inside the tunnel section is not high, which meets the
design requirements. In Fig. 5, the steeper curve area is mainly
due to the critical position between the arrangement of the air
valve and water rising level conditions, that is: at time t
o
, the air
valve is located above water surface, and the air valve keeps
the intake and exhaust functions, to the next time t
1
, the air
valve is below water surface, loss of the intake and exhaust
functions, resulting in the sharp decline in discharge capacity
and sudden increase in air pressure inside the pipeline.
Combined with the previous analysis, under the different
flow discharges, the variation of water volume and air pressure
of tunnel section can be calculated, as shown in Fig. 6 and Fig.
7.
0
!00000
?00000
300000
+00000
00000
b00000
00000
800000
0 ?00 +00 b00 800 !000 !?00 !+00 !b00
t`mm`u)

u
t

v
o
'
u
m

3
)
bm3:)
m3:)
8m3:)
9m3:)
!0m3:)
!!m3:)
u'')ou

Figure 6. Variation of water volume in tunnel

b8000
+000
80000
8b000
9?000
98000
!0+000
0 ?00 +00 b00 800 !000 !?00 !+00 !b00
t`m m`u)
u
`

:
:
u

u
)
bm3:)
m3:)
8m3:)
9m3:)
!0m3:)
!!m3:)
u'')ou

Figure 7. Variation of air pressure in tunnel

Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show that under the different flow
discharges, the characteristic trends with time consistently. As
is shown in Fig. 7, with increasing flow discharge, the larger
flow discharge, the shorter time when the air pressure reaches
the minimum, the shorter water-emptying time, the lower the
minimum pressure, the greater the vacuum, the higher pipe
risk. When drain valves fully open, the discharge is the largest,
and the water-emptying time is the shortest, but the vacuum is
also the greatest, and the pipe is the most dangerous.
In order to empty the pipe as soon as possible, to prepare
for the coming maintenance and the next water filling process,
the largest flow discharge should be adopted, in addition, the
minimum pressure is not very low, and the time of maintaining
the minimum pressure is not very long, so the drain valves can
be full open, and the venting time is 19 ~ 20 hours.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
In water filling process, in accordance with the principles of
the low flow rate of water filling, the air pressure inside the
pipe is not high, and the pipeline will not be damaged by water
hammer. In water emptying process, with increasing flow
discharge, the larger flow discharge, the shorter time when the
air pressure reaches the minimum, the shorter water-emptying
time, the lower the minimum pressure, the greater the vacuum,
the higher pipe risk. Therefore, in water filling and emptying
process, in order to keep the pipeline safe, a reasonable choice
of water filling and emptying discharges is very necessary.

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