| Abstract: | Two mechanical models have been presented in this paper for structural failure prediction of piping systems conveying liquids subjected to pressure transients. One model takes into account the axial fluid–structure interaction (FSI) phenomenon between fluid and pipe motion, whereas the other refers to an extension of the well-known waterhammer formulation. Both models are described by a system of non-linear hyperbolic equations which are solved by using a numerical procedure based upon the operator splitting technique and Glimm's scheme. To implement Glimm's method, it is presented the solution of a 4×4 Riemann problem with discontinuous coefficients. Numerical predictions of both models are presented and compared, so that the influence of the FSI term on the failure analysis is focused on. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
