Chester has designs on pressure surges

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Dec 25, 2003

The 9th International Conference on Pressure Surges builds on the success of its predecessors by focusing on the latest developments in surge analysis.

The safety and integrity of fluid distribution systems relies on anticipating and controlling transient flows.

System failure can seriously affect safety and cause contamination of the environment or fluid being transported.

Pump and pipe size are important considerations but only one aspect of hydraulic design.

Predicting transient behaviour through surge analysis is potentially more important and difficult.

It involves computer modelling to simulate the complex interaction of equipment, pipelines and fluid during normal, fault and emergency events.

Surge analysis is not currently subject to codes of practice, and so design constraints must be based on available knowledge and experience.

But inconsistency remains in the definition of these constraints and the software options that need to be deployed to enable the most suitable design decisions to be made.

Appreciation of transient behaviour is being devolved from academic researchers and specialist consultants to designers, contractors, suppliers and owners.

These need to understand how theory is applied in the real world.

And they need to know how analytical results affect design decisions, how to balance alleviation costs and risks, how to define consistent design constraints, whether real systems behave as predicted and the critical parameters needed to implement successful solutions.

BHR Group's 9th International Conference on Pressure Surges builds on the success of its predecessors by focusing on the latest developments in surge analysis for the design and operation of successful applications.

The conference, which will take place in Chester, UK, 24th-26th March 2004, aims to provide a forum for information exchange and technology transfer.

Since its inception in the 1970s the conference has fostered knowledge transfer about transient and unsteady flow between industries and highlighted the role of computational techniques for analysis, simulation and design.

Recent research papers presented to the conference have focused on increasingly esoteric topics but this latest event provides an ideal opportunity to assess how the technology and knowledge developed over the last three decades has translated into successful real-life applications.

The conference brings together plant owners and operators, designers, consultants, surge analysis software providers and users, equipment suppliers and constructors from industries including water, oil and gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, petrochemical, automotive, aerospace, and building services.

The objective is to highlight that solutions found in one area are often relevant to others.

These industries often have to deal with the issues addressed by the conference and found in systems such as potable water, foul water, storm water, full/partially-full flow regimes, firewater, cooling systems, water injection, oil and chemical pipelines, power systems, and fuel systems.

The popularity of the event is demonstrated by a selection of prestigious industrialists and academics who have agreed to give keynote addresses and chair sessions, including: John Banyard, Severn Trent Water; Bill Bradbury, Atkins ADS; David Thorley, City University; Arris Tijsseling, Eindhoven University of Technology; and Ben Wylie, University of Michigan.

The agenda covers many key issues facing industry: "How do surge analysis results affect design decisions?"; "How are cost and risk balanced in surge alleviation decisions?"; "How should consistent design constraints be defined?"; "Do real systems behave as models predict?"; "What are the critical parameters?"; "Is transient analysis ever decisive?" and "Who takes the risk?".

Formal presentations will be supplemented by open forum debates to enable wider discussion of key issues.

These provide an opportunity for delegates to discuss topics such as industrial problems, interpretation of analysis data and the future direction of the technology.

The event is designed for: engineers with responsibility for plant design, operation and maintenance; project managers, researchers and developers; CFD software developers and users; those responsible for risk assessment, health and safety, accident and insurance assessment; commissioning and plant engineers; contract specification engineers; academics and research students; engineers and project managers from operators, consultants and contractors.

The conference is sponsored by IAHR, KBR Infrastructure and Quantum Engineering Developments.