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The importance of experimental tests on air valves for proper choice in a water supply project

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Abstract

This study demonstrates the importance of experimental tests on air valves. For this purpose, a bench was designed and built in the Laboratory of Hydraulics and Fluid Mechanics of the School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urbanism (FEC) of State University of Campinas—Unicamp that simulates the operation of a water supply system. The maneuver procedures have been defined for the filling and emptying operations of the pipelines. The results indicated that the catalogs of the studied air valves overestimated the values of the expelled air flowrate by up to 6 times. Thus, this study indicates the need to perform dynamic tests to ensure safety in the choice of the air valve, system stability with a decrease in transient events and consequent economy with reduced head loss, energy consumption and maintenance.

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Fig. 1

(Aquino [8])

Fig. 2

(Fox et al. [9])

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Abbreviations

A o :

Orifice area of the air valve (m2)

c :

Sound propagation speed in air (m/s)

K :

Flowrate coefficient (–)

M :

Mach number (–)

\(\dot{m}\) :

Mass flowrate (Kg/s)

P iabs :

Absolute internal pressure (Kg/m2s2)

Q air :

Air flowrate (m3/s)

Q water :

Water flowrate (m3/s)

R :

Indeterminacy index (–)

T a :

Room temperature (°C)

T i :

Internal temperature (°C)

URV:

Upper range value (%)

V waterfill :

Water filling velocity (m/s)

V exp :

Air expulsion velocity (m/s)

ΔP :

Pressure differential (m)

ρ :

Air density (kg/m3)

References

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Acknowledgements

We thank FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) for the research grant process 2010/51522-9 and SABESP (Basic Sanitation Company of the State of São Paulo) for the technical support. We also thank the reviewers for the valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urbanism, University of Campinas – Unicamp, Campinas, Brazil

    Genivaldo Alcantara de Aquino, Yvone de Faria Lemos De Lucca & José Gilberto Dalfré Filho

  2. Basic Sanitation Company of São Paulo – SABESP, São Paulo, Brazil

    Genivaldo Alcantara de Aquino

  3. Center of Technology of Hydraulic- CTH/DAEE/USP, São Paulo, Brazil

    Yvone de Faria Lemos De Lucca

Authors
  1. Genivaldo Alcantara de Aquino
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  2. Yvone de Faria Lemos De Lucca
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  3. José Gilberto Dalfré Filho
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to José Gilberto Dalfré Filho.

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Technical Editor: Fernando Antonio Forcellini.

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de Aquino, G.A., De Lucca, Y. & Dalfré Filho, J.G. The importance of experimental tests on air valves for proper choice in a water supply project. J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 40, 403 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-018-1306-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-018-1306-2

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