Nonreflective Boundary Design via Remote Sensing and Proportional-Integral-Derivative Control Valve

This paper develops the concept of a nonreflective (or semireflective) boundary condition using the combination of a remote sensor and a control system to modulate a relief valve. The essential idea is to sense the pressure change at a remote location and then to use the measured data to adjust the opening of an active control valve at the end of the line to eliminate or attenuate the wave reflections at the valve, thus controlling system transient pressures. This novel idea is shown here through numerical simulation to have considerable potential for transient protection. Using this model, wave reflections and resonance can be effectively eliminated for frictionless pipelines or initial no-flow conditions and can be better controlled in more realistic pipelines for a range of transient disturbances. In addition, the features of even-order harmonics and nonreflective boundary conditions during steady oscillation, obtained through time domain transient analysis, are verified by hydraulic impedance analysis in the frequency domain.