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WATER JET CONFERENCE - Waterjet Technology Association

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frictional and piping component relationships and calculates the pressures and flow rates<br />

at selected points along the piping system for each time step from the start of the<br />

transient until a steady oscillatory condition is realized. Since a hundred or more<br />

oscillations are often required to reach the steady oscillatory state, considerable computer<br />

time is required to calculate a complete response spectrum for a single modulator<br />

configuration.<br />

During the design of a modulator system it is beneficial to obtain a system response<br />

spectrum showing the amplitude of the output oscillations over the entire range of driving<br />

frequencies. These relationships predict the frequencies for which the modulator operates<br />

most efficiently and regions where the oscillation is attenuated by the piping system. The<br />

transfer matrix method, which solves the governing equations directly for the steady state<br />

amplitudes of oscillation provides an economical means of obtaining the response<br />

diagrams. Even though approximations are made to linearize the viscous terms and the<br />

non-linear boundary conditions, this technique can be used to identify areas of interest for<br />

which more accurate calculation can be made with the method of characteristics.<br />

The possibility of developing a modulator that greatly amplifies the input signal by<br />

resonating the piping system is of interest in minimizing the power required to drive the<br />

oscillator. However, assessing the potential for a given modulator configuration to<br />

produce a large amplification of output would require a response spectrum for each<br />

combination of pipe length, pipe diameter, wave speed and boundary conditions. Even<br />

using the transfer matrix method, where only one closed form calculation is required to<br />

obtain a response at each driving frequency, the number of calculations required to obtain<br />

a clear picture of the modulation possibilities quickly becomes very time consuming if not<br />

prohibitive as the modulator complexity increases.<br />

In this study the transfer matrix method is used to predict the system response.<br />

However, the governing equations are developed in terms of dimensionless pipe lengths<br />

and parametric calculations are made in terms of these quantities. The resulting summary<br />

curves greatly reduce the number of calculations required to assess the modulation<br />

possibilities of a given system of components. Specific dimensions required to produce a<br />

particular condition predicted by the summary curves can be easily obtained.<br />

THE TRANSFER MATRIX METHCD<br />

Since the dimensionless pipe length analysis uses the transfer matrix method for the<br />

system response equations, a brief discussion of the method is included. Complete details<br />

of the method are presented by Chaudhry [2]. This technique develops linear equations<br />

relating pressures and flow rates at a point upstream of the particular modulator<br />

component to these quantities at the downstream end of the component. Then the<br />

relationship between flow rates and pressures at the upstream boundary of the entire<br />

system is obtained in terms of these quantities at the downstream boundary by an<br />

ordered multiplication of the equation matrices for each component in the modulator<br />

4

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