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The surge tank is one of important control devices inreducing water Hummer effect on distributed network pipingsystem and hydropower stations. An experimental study wasconducted into a simple surge tank of 0.044 m in a diameterwith upstream constant head reservoir of a height, 0.881 mand a water transporting pipe of a size 0.0202 m.Results indicate that rapid closure of a downstream valvecauses under-damped stable oscillation in a surge tank.Experimental response agreed well with theoretical resultswhen friction factor is considered to be variable, but with 85% increases in settle time and more oscillations when constantfriction factor is recognized at initial value before valveclosure. Doubling surge tank area does not improve thedynamics properties; otherwise, Thoma area must be avoidedfor small sizes. Comsol multiphysics software 3.5 is used todeal with the dynamics of the surge tank numerically.

Comsol multiphyscs --- friction factor --- surge tank --- valve closure