TY - JOUR PY - 2010// TI - Air entrapped in gravity pipeline systems JO - Journal of hydraulic research A1 - Pozos, Oscar A1 - Gonzalez, Carlos A. A1 - Giesecke, Juergen A1 - Marx, Walter A1 - Rodal, Eduardo A. SP - 338 EP - 347 VL - 48 IS - 3 N2 - Large air pockets entrapped in pipelines reduce the effective pipe cross-section, causing an increase in energy loss. Air accumulates at high points along the line throttling the flow and may ultimately cause a complete conduit blockage. Despite researchers having studied these phenomena, air binding is still commonly found in aqueducts, since there is a lack of understanding on the movement of air bubbles and pockets in closed conduits. This study proposes a simplistic method to predict the movement of air bubbles and pockets in downward sloping pipes which can be used either to solve air binding in existing pipelines or to prevent its occurrence in new pipelines from design stage. An experimental investigation was conducted to validate the proposed analytical method. The analysis revealed that problems related with entrained air are commonly unnoticed until a major operational failure such as an increase in head losses, violent blowbacks, or overflowing structures occurs. Keywords: Pipeline transportation

LA - en SN - 0022-1686 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221686.2010.481839 ID - ref1 ER -