Analysis of pressure transients and cavitation in a distributor

During pressure testing of a large distributor the weld securing the bulkhead failed, which triggered large pressure transients and cavitation phenomena. The problem has been studied by explicit integration, using shell elements for the structural parts and acoustic elements for the water. Although the calculations had to be carried out in the absence of any information about the outcome of the accident, very good consistency was achieved between the predictions and the actual observations.