SURGE TANKS

PRESENTED BY:-
VIGNESH V
CONTENTS

 GENERAL
 SURGE TANK
 FUNCTIONS
 TYPES OF SURGE TANKS
 GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
 COMMON TYPES
 SPECIAL TYPES
 STABILITY OF SURGE TANK
 DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
 DESIGN
GENERAL
 In hydroelectric power plant, a very large mass of water is contained in the
penstock and therefore considerable forces are necessary to retard or accelerate this
mass when load at the generator changes at any time.
 This variations in the flow of water to the turbine to maintain constant synchronous
speed will produce large vibrations of pressure in the conduit system.
 In case of load rejection , automatically operating relief valves will tackle the
situation but there is water loss.
 When there is sudden increase in load or during closing of turbine valves, water
hammer will be formed.
 To prevent this either the conduit should be strengthened or increased time of valve
closure, have to be provided.
 But these precautions are costly to implement, hence surge tanks are used.
Surge tank
 A reservoir or surge tank with free water surface can be installed as close to the
power house as is economically feasible in order to reflect back the water hammer
waves without entering into the large upstream conduit. Such a reservoir or tank is
known as surge tank.
 The surge tank is located between the almost horizontal or slightly inclined
pressure conduit and the steeply sloping penstock.
 it is designed either as a chamber excavated in the mountain or as a tower rising
high above the surrounding terrain.
FUNCTIONS

 It provides a free reservoir surface close to the discharge regulation

mechanism. This will cut short and limit the conduit length liable to water
hammer pressures.
 It supplies the additional water required by the turbine during load demand
until the conduit velocity has accelerated to the new steady state value.
 It stores water during load rejection until the conduit velocity has been
decelerated to the new steady state value.
 It ensures that the oscillation of water levels following load changes of
even small as well as large magnitude, is quenched positively and rapidly.
 Under steady operating conditions, the water level in the surge tank
remains constant at an elevation corresponding to the reservoir gradient
level, and the surge tank serves no purpose.
TYPES OF SURGE TANKS
According to their location relative to terrain, surge tanks can be
classified as
1. Excavated surge tank

2. Free standing surge tank.

According to their position relative to the power house, the surge tanks
can be classified as
1. Upstream surge tank on head race tunnel.

2. Downstream surge tank on tail race tunnel.

According to the head available for the scheme, they can be classified as
1. Surge tanks for high head plants.
2. Surge tanks for medium head plants.

According to the hydraulic design, they can be classified into the

following groups.
3. Simple surge tanks.
4. Restricted orifice type (or throttled) surge tanks.
5. Differential surge tanks.
6. Downstream surge tanks on tailrace tunnels.
7. Special surge tanks with expansion chambers.
8. Multiple surge tanks.
COMMON TYPES
1. Simple surge tanks
Simple surge tank is an unrestricted tank of constant cross sectional area in which
the maximum variation of water level is contained within the tank. This is very
sluggish in action and costly since it requires greatest volume.

a) Simple tank
b) Simple shaft
c) Variable area tank
d) Inclined shaft
e) Spilling tank
f) Spilling shaft
2. Restricted orifice surge tank
Restricted orifice surge tank decreases the amplitude of the surge and effects more
rapid reduction of the oscillation and thus gives an economy upto 40% compared with
simple tanks. But the disadvantage is, that it allows part of the water hammer pressures
into the conduit system.

a) Simple restricted surface type tanks.

b) Tank with grate type
c) Tank with narrow riser.
d) Tank with riser and orifice.
e) Tank with orifice and spilling arrangement.
3. Differential surge tank
Differential tank separates out the two functions of simple storing of
additional water and effective accelerating and decelerating of water in the
main conduit by the outside main tank and central river respectively. Thus this
type has got the combined advantage of a simple and restricted orifice type
surge tanks.
a) Jhonson's type differential tanks with central riser.
b) Differential type with inclined riser separated from the main tank
c) Surge shaft with differential upper chamber.
4. Downstream surge tanks on tail race tunnels
Downstream surge tanks on tail race tunnel are constructed on the long tail race
pressure tunnels of the underground power stations to protect the tunnel against water
hammer pressures.

a) Surge tank on tail race pressure tunnel.

b) Surge tank on tail race tunnel with free flow for normal operating conditions only.
5. Special type surge tank
They provide additional storage ,capacity where it is more required i.e. at the top
of the tank for load rejection and at the bottom of the tank for load acceptance. These
may be either conical tanks or tanks with expansion chambers with or without
throttling and differential arrangements, and are very useful for limiting the surge
heights.

a) Shaft with lower expansion chamber.

b) Shaft with upper expansion chamber.
c) Shaft with upper and lower expansion chambers.
d) Shaft with expansion chamber and spilling arrangements.
6. Multiple surge tanks

In some modern hydroelectric schemes more than one surge tank may have to
be constructed as per the layout for the particular terrain based on the
tunnelling techniques used.
a) Two simple tanks or shafts on upstream side.
b) One simple tank and inclined shaft.
c) One throttled tank and simple shaft.
d) Surge tank with expansion chamber and inclined shaft.
e) Cooperating upstream and downstream surge tanks.
f) Multiple tanks on either side of the turbine.
Spilling surge tank
It has less volume to contain the water due to whole upsurge under the most adverse
conditions of closure and the excess water passes to waste. Thus it limits the upsurge
elevation and reduces height of the tank.

Closed surge tank

It is called as Air Chamber which reduces the change of water level due to confined air
pocket above.
SPECIAL SURGE TANKS

1. One way surge tanks

It is usually designed to avoid column separation, do not need to extend upto the
hydraulic grade line and need only sufficient capacity to fill the void caused by a
column separation. These are primarily used in connection with pumping plants.
2. Surge tanks fed by more than one tunnel

In high head schemes, sometimes, a single surge tank may be fed by many reservoirs
with equal water levels. The equations governing the flow can be solved by the same
method as that employed for the simple surge tanks.
Surge tank with venturi contraction
In some tanks, the cross sectional area of pipe line is reduced at the base of the
tank with a venturi type contraction. This increases the velocity head in the pipe line at
the base of the surge tank and improves the stability and thus reduces the minimum or
critical area of the surge tank.

Heating surge tanks

In cold climate, it is necessary to apply heat to the water to prevent from freezing.
The general practice is to lag surge tanks.
STABILITY OF SURGE TANK
 The modem surge tanks have, to take care of large water level displacements due to
severity of the loading conditions imposed by the large electrical grid on any
station in the group.
 A single power station designed for worst possible loading condition is likely to
fail when connected to a grid.

Methods of improving stability

1.By changing the governing characteristics
By changing the sensitivity of the governor, the oscillations of the surges can be
controlled, without altering the hydraulic parameters of the system. A less sensitive
governor will give better surge stability.

2.By providing proper electrical feedback

By changing the power outputs of the station in accordance that with the
variations of water levels in the surge chamber during transient conditions, the stability
of the surges can be achieved irrespective of the tank area.
3. Effects of the shape of turbine efficiency curves
 Due to the downward slope of the turbine efficiency curves near the full gate
opening for any small increment of load beyond that point, a comparatively larger
tank is required in order to achieve hydraulic stability.
 In other words, if the area of the tank is not increased the effective capacity of the
plant is reduced.

4.Effect of interconnections
 An unstable surge tank in an isolated power station becomes stable if the said
power plant is interconnected to other stations to form a grid.
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS OF SURGE TANKS
 The surge tank must located at the junction of the conduit and the penstock.
 The tank must be stable i.e. the water surface oscillations resulting from the load
variations in the power system must be damped out.
 The surge tank must contain within itself the maximum possible upsurge resulting
from worst conditions of load rejection.
 The lowest possible downsurge must be sufficiently above the conduit top level and
in no case air should be drawn into the pipe.
 The range of the surges must not be so large as to cause undesirable heavy
governor movements causing difficulty in picking up load.
Worst case considerations
1. Worst upsurge (maximum upsurge level)
 The friction and other losses in the system are minimum.
 The whole station is running at full overload.
 The reservoir water level is at its maximum.

2. Worst downsurge (Minimum downsurge level)

 The friction and other losses in the system are maximum.
 The load is thrown off completely when running at full overload and again is
accepted instantaneously at worst moment of the swing, i.e. when the velocity in
the conduit is minimum.
 The reservoir water level is at its minimum.
DESIGN
The critical section of stability is given by applying Thoma criterion
Asc=V02AtLt/2gP0H0
The tank is considered to have smooth concrete finish
Using Manning’s equation with 1/n=85
Asc=45D10/3/H0
Where D is the diameter of the tunnel

For 100% sudden load rejection, maximum upsurge

Z*max=1-2K*0/3+K2*0/9 (for K*0<0.7)
Where
K*0 =P0/Zmax
Zmax=Q0/Asr
r =(gAt/LtAs)1/2
For 100% sudden load demand, maximum downsurge
Z*min= -1-0.125K*0 (for K*0<0.8)

Where,
Z is the surge amplitude
As is the C.S area of surge tank
P0 is the headloss in tunnel

BIS CODE
IS : 7396 ( Part 1) – 1985 (design of headrace surge tank)
IS : 7396 ( Part 2) – 1985 (design of tailrace surge tank)
THANK YOU