Tests Of The Woolley Valve For The James H. Campbell Plant, Unit No. 3

Abstract

The innovative use of fixed screens to reject solids in condenser cooling water drawn from Lake Michigan has been considered a practical solution for the lake withdrawal system proposed at the James H. Campbell, Unit No.3 Of the Consumer Power Company. The withdrawal point, which is 3,500 feet offshore and approximately 30 feet below the lake surface, is considered relatively free of screen-plugging.solids under normal conditions, but during winter, frazil ice plugging is possible. To assure continued operation under these unusual conditions it was considered necessary to provide the system with an opened water (non-screened) auxiliary intake. This auxiliary function is to be provided by installing a relief valve at the outer or stub end of two of the four header pipes which are to constitu.te the intake system as shown in Fig. 1. These valves are to open and provide .auxiliary intake water whenever screen plugging resulted in a selected level of pressure reduction within the header. The selected level proposed for the valve operation was 12 inches additional headloss. The valve deemed most appropriate for use was a modified version of a Synchro-chek valve made by the W. J. Woolley Company of River Forest, Illinois. The Woolley valve has been marketed for many years as a pump discharge check valve, but its performance under Wave conditions, including 100 year storms, at the proposed site were unknown. In order to clarify the valve .performance it was decided to conduct tests of a 1:4 scale-model valve at the St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory of the University of Minnesota. The material which follows describes the Woolley valve, the three part test program (static, steady state flow, and dynamic flow), the test facilities, the test results, and the conclusions and recommendations resulting from the tests.