Has anyone else here ever created Water Hammer?

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Did it flood the bathroom?

Water hammer is awesome!

Never to the point of causing damage. It is always concerning when water is turned off for maintenance on lines. A couple years ago workers installing natural gas lines twice hit the water main and had to turn off the water to fix it. Both times when the water was turned back on I heard sounds coming out of the toilet that sounded like monsters. I even had an outside hydrant on the second time, but it didn't help much. I had to clean out all the faucet screens and toilet tanks had dirt and debris in them. I think those frickers doing the work only knew how to locate the water main by hitting the damn thing.

If you've ever shut off a faucet, especially in the basement of an older house, and heard the pipes rattle or knock, that's the same phenomenon.

Fluid is traveling through a pipe. It has momentum. When a valve closes, the flow energy is converted to pressure. The pressure wave travels back upstream of the blockage at the wavespeed of sound in that fluid. That pressure wave exerts a force on the outside pipe walls. This can cause rupture if the pressure if the pressure exceeds the pipe limits. It happens at faulty welds.

It's a concern in any liquid pipeline regardless of fluid type. In large pump stations, it can knock pipes off of pipe racks if the system was designed poorly.

You ought to see what happens in a plant when that happens. It looks like it’s snowing from all the insulation falling off

They have these things called water hammer arresters. You know, to prevent water hammer.

Look it up.

My company builds retorts ( industrial pressure cookers) and sometimes when there is a leaking steam valve, the whole pipe rack will shake and make you think you need to run out the plant with the horrific sounds coming from the pipes!