Computing the effect of plastic deformation of piping on pressure transient propagation. [LMFBR]

The computer program PTA-1 performs pressure-transient analysis of large piping networks using the one-dimensional method of characteristics applied to a fluid-hammer formulation. The effect of elastic-plastic deformation of piping on pulse propagation is included in the computation. Each pipe is modeled as a series of rings, neglecting axial effects, bending moments, and inertia. The fluid wave speed is a function of pipe deformation and, consequently, of position and time. Comparison with existing experimental data indicate that this simple fluid-structure interaction model gives suprisingly accurate results for both pressure histories in the fluid and strain histories in the piping