Fluid handling – Diverse fluid containing pressure systems – Gas pressure storage over or displacement of liquid
Patent
1995-11-02
1997-07-15
Michalsky, Gerald A.
Fluid handling
Diverse fluid containing pressure systems
Gas pressure storage over or displacement of liquid
1372115, F17D 120
Patent
active
056473923
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an air regulation system for a hydropneumatic reservoir equipping a water pipe which may be a network for distributing drinking water or irrigation water, or a network for discharging waste water or chemical liquids.
The hydropneumatic reservoir may operate as a regulation reservoir (or hydrophore) for regulating the pumping pressure and ensuring continuity of the service in the pipe, within a pressure range between a high threshold and a low threshold. When the high pressure threshold is exceeded, the pump (or one of the pumps) feeding the pipe is shut down. The regulation reservoir then tops the pipe up with water. When the low threshold is reached, the pump is started up again to ensure sufficient pressure in the pipe.
The hydropneumatic reservoir may also be used as a reservoir for preventing water hammer in a water pipe, so as to compensate depression and overpressure effects brought about for example by shutting down a pump or closing a valve. The operation of such a reservoir is known especially from French Patent No. 2 416 417 (ROCHE).
A significant problem in ensuring the correct operation of the hydropneumatic reservoir lies in maintaining a constant volume of air in the reservoir. This is because, in operation, the hydropneumatic reservoir contains water or some arbitrary liquid flowing into the pipe, and air trapped in the reservoir just above the surface of the water. The dissolving of air in water or, conversely, the release of gas from the liquid which may occur under certain circumstances, create a variation in the volume of air trapped in the reservoir. It is therefore necessary to provide solutions making it possible to introduce air into the reservoir in the event of insufficiency, and to discharge excess air from the reservoir in the opposite case.
In general, the hydropneumatic reservoir is topped up with air using an air compressor or an external air injector.
The main drawback of air compressors is that the air introduced into the reservoir contains oil droplets or vapors imparted by the compressor. Although the presence of oil thus conveyed into the reservoir is of no trouble where the discharge of waste water is concerned, the same is not true for drinking water supplies.
Air injectors make it possible to eliminate the entrainments of oil in the air injected into the hydropneumatic reservoir. They do not allow the variation in the volume of air in the reservoir to be compensated precisely. Indeed, only trial and error has hitherto allowed the volume of additional air to be conveyed to the reservoir to be fixed especially as a function of the capacity of the reservoir and of the pressure of the water in the pipe, given that the dissolving of air in contact with the water depends on many factors. As a consequence, either an insufficiency or an excess of air injected into the reservoir may occur, which give rise to an inability to provide correct regulation and, for the second case, to pockets of air which may be conveyed by the water into the pipe and give rise to water hammer.
Furthermore, the conventional air injector suffers from other imperfections: the approximate use of the volume available in the injector for the water filling (injection of air into the reservoir)/draining (introduction of air into the device) cycle, the absence of means for protecting the air intake valve of the device against the risk of damage by contact with the water (especially waste water), the absence of concern regarding the quality of the air injected into the reservoir, and in the case of a pipe with submerged pump, the use of a draining siphon in the pipe which creates a loss of efficiency of the submerged pump because of the permanent discharge of water pumped by the siphon, and each start-up of the submerged pipe necessarily leads to an injection of air into the reservoir, even if such an injection is not called for.
The hydropneumatic reservoir generally comprises a hollow body known as a tank which communicates with the pipe for containing the liquid. The tank m
REFERENCES:
patent: 3347256 (1967-10-01), Massey et al.
patent: 4182358 (1980-01-01), Sinelnikov et al.
Charlatte
Michalsky Gerald A.
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