Hydraulic Optimization of Double Chamber Surge Tank Using NSGA-II

• Main Authors: Resham Dhakal, Jianxu Zhou, Sunit Palikhe, Khem Prasad Bhattarai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-02-01
• Series: Water
• Subjects: numerical analysis; double chamber surge tank; method of characteristics; hydraulic transients; surge analysis; nsga-ii; reservoir water level; operation mode
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/2/455

A surge tank effectively reduces water hammer but experiences water level oscillations during transient processes. A double chamber surge tank is used in high head plants with appreciable variations in reservoir water levels to limit the maximum amplitudes of oscillation by increasing the volume of the surge tank near the extremes of oscillation. Thus, the volume of the chambers and the design of an orifice are the most important factors for controlling the water level oscillations in a double chamber surge tank. Further, maximum/minimum water level in the surge tank and damping of surge waves have conflicting behaviors. Hence, a robust optimization method is required to find the optimum volume of chambers and the diameter of the orifice of the double chamber surge tank. In this paper, the maximum upsurge, the maximum downsurge, and the damping of surge waves are considered as the objective functions for optimization. The worst condition of upsurge and downsurge is determined through 1-D numerical simulation of the hydropower system by using method of characteristics (MOC). Moreover, the sensitivity of dimensions of a double chamber surge tank is studied to find their impact on objective functions; finally, the optimum dimensions of the double chamber surge tank are found using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) to control the water level oscillations in the surge tank under transient processes. The volume of the optimized double chamber surge tank is only 44.53% of the total volume of the simple surge tank, and it serves as an effective limiter of maximum amplitudes of oscillations. This study substantiates how an optimized double chamber surge tank can be used in high head plants with appreciable variations in reservoir water levels.