Mathematical model and experimental validation of horizontal water level oscillations in surge tanks for hydraulic transient analysis of hydropower system

Weixin Qiu, Jian Zhang, Xiaodong Yu, Sheng Chen, Yi Liu and Yuqing Li

Energy, 2025, vol. 329, issue C

Abstract: Accurate simulation of water level oscillations in the surge tank is essential for ensuring the operational safety of the hydropower system, and the effective regulation of power generation quality. Conventional surge tank models account solely for vertical water-level oscillations (VWLOs), disregarding horizontal water-level oscillations (HWLOs). To address this issue, an innovative surge tank model is proposed, enabling simultaneous simulation of both VWLOs and HWLOs. The validity of the proposed model is confirmed through scale experiment. Subsequently, the effects of HWLOs on extreme water levels in the surge tank and the transient pressure of hydropower system are analysed. Finally, a dimensionless parameter ϑ is defined to determine the applicability range of the conventional surge tank model. The results show that when the dimensionless parameter ϑ exceeds 0.03, the conventional surge model loses accuracy and the proposed model should be adopted to capture the HWLOs. When HWLOs are taken into account, the extreme water levels and transient pressure become more hazardous, indicating that neglecting HWLOs poses potential risks to the hydropower system. This work provides an innovative and verified surge tank model, which can serve as the theoretical tool to enhance the operation and regulation of hydropower system.

Keywords: Innovative surge tank model; Extreme water level; Transient pressure; Horizontal water level oscillation; Experimental measurements verification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225021632
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:329:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225021632

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.136521

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().