Generalized water hammer algorithm for piping systems with unsteady friction

The objective of this study is to extend Silva-Araya and Chaudhry's unsteady friction model for water hammer analysis to series and branching pipe systems. The conduits at these systems may have different diameters, wall thickness, wall material, and/or friction factors.; For the computation of the initial steady state conditions a subroutine that solves the network flow equations using the Hardy Cross linear analysis is used. The subroutine allows for the input of minor losses, use of either the Darcy-Weisbach or Hazen-Willians pipe frictional loss. Either SI or English units are permissible.; To create a "user friendly" Windows interface, the extended application was developed using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) in Excel for general program applications.; The model was tested for three cases: single, series and branching piping systems. The computed pressures are compared with the experimental data obtained for Silva Araya (1993) for a single piping system case. For a series and a branching piping system the computed results obtained by using unsteady friction are compared with the data obtained by using steady friction model. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...