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All Abstracts for All Sessions

Sorted by first name of the speaker

The Key Significance of Energy as a Quantitative Measure of Transient State

Bryan W. Karney | Professor, Toronto University, Canada

Energy is perhaps one of few universally employed concepts, whether used by economists, environmental fundamentalists, physicists, chemists, biologists, biochemists, engineers, foresters or medical doctors.  It is central to an evaluation of both sustainability and environmental impact, but also to very human things from the study or depression, to cooking, to athletic performance and longevity.  Familiarity often means we believe we know these energy-related things well, but the specific energy definitions – as they often appear in books, papers and popular articles – seems to indicate that the profoundly universal and insightful nature of the concept of energy is missed, forgotten or left somewhat vague. This presentation will first review the crucial and fascinating physical connections that give rise to the modern thermodynamic concept of energy, and how much we sometimes distort this measure in pipeline systems. This general understanding will then be used to account for the undisputed role that energy plays in state transformations of everything from the photon given off from a single atom, to the dynamics of a pipeline system, to the evolution of stars.

Mitigation of Hydraulic Transients: Tips from the Practice

Jose M. Adriasola V. | Principal Engineer Hydraulics and Hydrology, Chile

Current state-of-the-art of hydraulic transients in pressurized systems - both theoretical and implemented in commercial software - allows resolving very complex problems with high confidence. Not all, but most of those found in practice. Some papers are published every year comparing theoretical versus actual results measured either in laboratory setups or in actual systems in the field, showing good agreement and confirming how robust the theory is. But, despite all the efforts and care put when carrying on transient analyses, sometimes things go wrong anyway... Why? Are we missing some important “details”? Are we conveying all what we have in our minds effectively, aiming to get a successful outcome? What are those details that our computer screens cannot reveal? What does the practice say?

This presentation offers some practical experiences which help respond to some of these questions. Some of them might look trivial, but they also can make a big difference in front of a demanding customer with a single target in mind: meet their goals and key performance indexes. This is especially true and challenging when dealing with existing operations (“brownfield” projects), since the “big check” is achieved only if: 1) the new components can be implemented within out-of-mind timeframes, minimizing the interruptions of the system’s operation, and 2) the new components smoothly integrate with the existing system, the operational culture and the control system.

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