Abstract Water hammer problems occurs where restrictions flow suddenly change in pipelines, usually the closing or opening of valves. Presence of a high velocity pressure wave traveling though the fluid could cause damages in the pipeline structures due to the implosion of gas cavities formed by a physical phenomenon called cavitation. On this work, it is studied the water hammer physical problem considering the influence of the convective terms in the momentum and continuity equations, the cavitation problem has been evaluated by the discrete vapour cavity physical model. A MATLAB code is developed to solve the transient problem and find the hydraulic head evolution in some points along the pipeline. The method of characteristics is used to find a numerical solution of the coupled partial differential equation system. Results shows good agreement with result presented in literature reviewed, also, it is found that the influence of the convective term is small compared with a simple model where those terms are neglected, the maximum difference value of 2.4 x 10 −4 where found, considering and neglecting the convective term on the physical model.