Unsteady and steady flow control on pumping systems

It is shown that PI (proportional-integral) algorithms can be used to solve two problems in the operation of large aqueducts to transport water through pressurized closed conduits. The first problem is that of regulating the discharge, instead of throttling it with a valve, saving that part of the energy supplied to the pump that would be dissipated by the valve. The second problem is that of reducing the intensity of pressure transients during the starting and normal stopping of pumps, i.e. protecting the pumping installation by means of the gradual variation of rotational speed. A possible performance criterion for minimizing the overshoot and the settling time in order to obtain the optimal values of the PI constants is presented