Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Stability Analysis Of Closed Surge Tanks By Phase-Plane Method, Mostafa A. Sabbah

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The governing equations describing water level oscillations in a closed surge tank with compressed air at the top of the tank are a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations if the hydraulic system is analyzed as a lumped system. These oscillations are stable or unstable depending on the parameters of the plant and the type and magnitude of the disturbance.

The present available stability criterion has been developed by linearizing the governing equations and is, therefore, valid only for small disturbances.

In the research reported herein, the governing equations are normalized to reduce the number of parameters from nine to …