Pulsatile Waterhammer Subject to Laminar Friction

This paper deals with elastic waves which may be generated in a fluid by the sudden movement of a flow boundary. In particular, an analysis of the classical piston, or signalling problem is presented for the special case of arbitrary velocity input into a stationary fluid contained in a circular, semi-infinite waveguide. The decay of the pulse, as well as the resulting flow development in the inlet region of the pipe are analyzed by means of an asymptotic expansion of the suitably nondimensionalized Navier-Stokes equations for a compressible, nonheat-conducting Newtonian fluid. The results differ significantly from those of the more conventional one-dimensional approach based on the so-called telegrapher’s equation of mathematical physics. The present theory realistically predicts the growth of a boundary layer both in time and position and, hence, it appears to represent the transient fluid motion in a manner which is physically more appealing.