A numerical model is developed to analyze the incompressible unsteady flow induced by the pump trip-out in the cooling water discharge culvert of thermal power plants. The numerical models has various features to deal concureently with the overall behavior of complicated unsteady flow due to the presence of cooling water internal system, seal well, air chamber, culvert, manholes, open channel and sea water. A leap-frog finite difference scheme is employed to solve governing equations, and the model is tested for a simple case of two tanks connected with a pipe. A fixed free surface boundary condition used earlier at the downstream end of culvert for large water body is investigated.