1.

Surge Tanks

The surge tank, also called ah. expan!;ion chamber is designed to avoid
transmission of undesirable pressure surges (positive as well as negative )
in pressure conduits, especially in headrace conduit.
. '

. ~ .
a. The surge ~ iJ;ltetcepf§ ot, at least fa~ically
reduces the pressure
surges due to water harniner and exempts thereby the pressure
tunnel from excessive intemal pressures.

b. The surge
r
tank, by. interrupting the -
closed system of the penstock
and tlie pressure fii)lfieL ·rrHtterially reclu.c-es the water hq.rnffier
pressure upon t)i~· Penstq:~k

c. The surge tank improves the regul&tion of the governing system.

For the s~e of stable governip_g lhe acceleration time of water
conaU.H ,Tw must not l5~e tO.o gtt:aJ ®.9, tlterefore, lort~ waterways
have to be iriterf4pted oy a free sttrf~ye, i.e. ·by a surge tank. The
following ttiumb ~ture caii 15e rtppli¢d tp asse·ss the requirement of a
surge t~k

TJTw > 5 (the ratio between the unit's and water way's inertia)

Where, the tinre of acceleration of the .water condUit, Tw is

Tw = Qa ( ~
/ ll
j
/i /A J= . 1· ( L. vJi J [sec}
71
.
gHnet 1 1 gHnet 1

And Ta is the acc~Ier~tiofl tjtp:e of the .Qnit, a f1nrction of the inertia,

rotational speed and nomin~l oUtput o:ft}1e tu.rbine gen¢rator unit. ~

Ta= 5-7 sec for larger units and 2-3 sec :fcrt smaller units.

1
 ...

d. The fourth purpose of the surge t~k is to provide water supply to

the turbines in the case of starting up.

1.2 Type of Surge Tanks

A) According to the· hydraulic desig.~.1

I. Simple surge ~s
II. Special surge t\Ilks:
• Surge shaft with upper expansion chamber,
•. Surge shaft with lower expansion cha,rp.ber,
• double-chatriber surge t(}fik.
f.
III RestriQted-orifi¢e type (or Utroftle<~ stirge tanks:
• simple restticted~otifice surge tank
• differential (Johnson type) surge tank, .
• double-chamber, restricted-otificJY~:urge tank.

B) According to their locatiof1 r¢lative to·t:n.~ t~rtaih

• recessed (exc~vated) or
• free-standing (expose-d).

C) The surge tank has in the .foregoing been considered as a structure

installed betWeen th~ ru.fihe1 ·an~ th-e peti$tdck. As will be seen later, a
surge chamber rrtay ·be r~qtr~r~9 ill1fb~qi~t~lY <(ft~t powethouse as · tne
well . if along taijwalit .Wflhel ·di·sthlitge~s urtqer pressure. The
application of a downstream· surge ch<J.mlJet Is justified by the
following reasons :

• to prevent the separation of the water coltiirth in the draft. tube, .

I. ' ~· • J ~ '; t-'l_..4! . • · *I# ~

and/or in !he ta:ilwater tuhfiel, iv the case\)frap"id clQ,sure;

f4.

•. •. •. ; ' . .· l

• to prevent excessive pressUtes it'i the draft tube, and/or in the

tail water tunnel, in the case ef tapid opening.
2
 Stmple surqe tank,~
I 2 3
/

-
m;..,,./...;;r,/.,./,//. 7' /.,./""?,-:"'7'%""?/~/
.,""'/"'"';;7."':;:""'/ - - - /

Surge shafis vtlh expansiOn chambers

5 s 7 8

- __..
:..- / '////7//7//7/////7//7/:
-
»//7//J/,>// / _.7,.y/ml/. -
"''/?7 /:"",.,...,/~;/.7/"'??:7 :%"''//7 :%"''//7 ?."''/7/ ?.7'::?7/ /77/

.9 10 II

Reslricled-ofifice type sur-ge tanks

13 - fll 15"

16 17 18 {g

-
w//7///7/7/7///77/. -
'//m»Tm//lTJJ7/J/ll77.
Fig. 3."1 ~ Surge tanks : 1 - simple tank, 2 - simple shaft, 3 - spilline shaft, 4 - overflow type tank,
-
'7/»T/,>///7m/7mm/ h /. -
/ ///// //.' / //?7/ m//);/%

5- shaft with upper expansion chamber, 6 - shaft with lower chamber, 7 -· shaft with overflow type
upper chamber, 8 - overflow type shaft with lower chamber. 9 - shaft with two chambers, 10 - ·-
inclined shaft with two chambers, 11 - overflow type tank with two chambers, 12-13 - simple,
restricted-orifice type tanks , 14 - tank with gate type throttling, 15-16- differential (Johnson type)
tanks, 17 - differential tank with upper chamber, 18 - double-chamber differential tank, 19 -
r1"nhle-chamber differential tank with thr.n.ttled lower chamber
 "t. •

Correspofidingly, according · to their position relative to the

powerhouse, surge tanks may be

o upstream (h~a4r£ice) surge tanks or

o downstream (tailrace) surge tanks. ,

D) In some instances surge ·tafiks are applied b'oth upstream of the

penstock and do~nstrearn of the powerhouse. Interconnected surge
tanks form a so-called multiple surge systetn which, depending upon
the relative arrangement of the two parts an<l on their location relative
to the turbine, may be of the two fol,loWi~g basic types:

a) a system ·:of u·pstre~am tanks arid./rrt s}i1iits {Fig. 3),

b) a systen1 of co·opet~ting
.
~...
ups.tteaih a,nd downstream
' . . .. . . tanks (Fig. 4).

A collective designation for aU variants of structl]tes shown above could

be: open air or atmospheric surge t«fi:lli/shaft. If, on the contrary, the
cavem-type chatnb~t is fr11ln the atwost>4er~ _c ompletely sealed 6ff and
with adequate higK-pre$sfrre a: c6titf_fr~:s$td air ~ti'sliiC>ii below tQ.e roof of
the ch:ambe.r is ~.r~_ated and rriairitaiiledl, the t~rtns enclosed or air.icushion
surge chambers ~re · u~ed (Fig. -5). '· .· ,. · · ·.. . · .

1.3 SectiQnal Area of S~tg_e --T~~~

The diameter of the stirg'e sfuiff is cafcrtf~ted satjsfyii1g die Thoma's

stability criterion ·and
coi.lsiderJng the topographical conditions. The .
critical sectional area, Asc for stability is estinUtted using the following
relation: · ;·

..·.

3
 ,.,. .

Fig. 7 : D~jin{tj,(tn skeitlt of a iypi4al power plafti iaytiut (Novak et at 2001)

'

Where ·the notations used are given in Fig. 7. The suffix with ' 0'
indicates the steady state condition prior to load variations . The area
thus comprtted is increased by a factor of 1. 5 for simple surge tank and ·
. 1.25 for restricted orifice surg~ tank:. .
'-,1.4 · Surg·es in Simple Snr~e taliks

The maximum upsurg-e ana dowfistif;~e should be contained Within t he

chamber. Basic hydraulic equations-b&Ween surge tank and the headtace
tunnel can be derived:

For - simple surge tafi];(s, t}le fqllovvAtrg eq\itttigfis cm1 be used ·for
ca1culating maximurn

Continuity Eq . ..

Momentum Eq.

Where, Q is tate of flow to ~owetticiuse at ~hy thh~~ 4zldt r~te. ~t which

the water rises in the surge tame V -How veloci~ it1 the tufiil~l of dia d
·. and length L; . -fve flow direction frorn reservoir. -
~ ·•

.. 1.
•

4
 ., .

The solution of equation gives the values of z at any time t . For the ·
simplest case of full closure, and negligible friction,

z = v, ~sin 2; t T-thne of oscillation

The maximvm upsurge and down,surge is given by

Jaeget has recommended the following forirtuia ih case when friction is

t*e_n into consig~r~tiop. ~ ·

z 2 2 2 h
-=1--k0 +-k for k 0 < 0.7 with k0 = ___jj_ and z represents
zmax 3 3 z max

111aximum upsurge, taldng friction into accoufit with r-espect to reservoir

level.

Similarly minimum downsurge is give:n by the following relation

z 1 . .

------
7 ,and fat C1 suddt$, 101fo/C) lo~d demand minunum
(1 +-ko)
3
dowrtsurge is given by the refation

z
-=-1-0.125 for k0 < 0.8
z max . .

While deltritiifiing' these dtteme vdlu_ei, the upsurge sh,ould be

d¢te-rooned .colislderiiiti" fhfrt[iilfm'·ptf$Sihle. if~felvbit
. . ' . .. . (heailwati!t level)
. . ' . . •. '

ditd slightly tol(Jer friction values iJ..f cojjdui~ Wl~~ea~ file _-!ftJii,iift!iJn
_' downsurge level considering fninimum pOiislble resiYv{iit: level
· ·(headWater level and slightlY higher friction coeffici(!-nts of con(luit ~

For
,,
detailed surge calculation r-efer Jviosonyi, 199! (Vol. 2a)
,.
j<'
~
5

~
 -· 680 ·0 ·- t .

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I s!s.se
I
'
L: P ~ :Jrge
534.16
~,.-.,1

A-

I
'
:..t:! ;uide

I
20m
B
r T
3
diameter Max. R~s.W . L 516.97 0

I -- -
------
---- A r l'U:': 0.45~ "'
SURGE Min.Res . W.L .5 15-45
------
-----,-
--
f.7NK}
MAIN . ...t, 2 5 - - -
r-;-
{SHhFT .
50 s.o 6 "'~--::
. I 1

tSoo-o
.:!:------~ · ~
1 ·,1i F- ;_ /.. • I t. .~ Dowr. surg l' 497.44
I
-
, ~
.:tC
u
..:.~z 84 0
c::
<iia
nl ,._ ORIF'ICE
4 ·0m 't
Head ra.ce

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