Emitter based approach for estimation of nodal outflow to pressure deficient water distribution networks under pressure management

Abstract

Hydraulic network solver simulates the behavior of water distribution network for a given set of geometric and hydraulic parameters such as pipe length, pipe diameter, tank size, pump capacity, demand, pipe roughness, etc. Over the years, many researchers have developed number of hydraulic simulation models (software) for analysis and design of water distribution networks, but most of them are based on demand driven analysis (DDA). This paper reviews the existing approaches and examines the usefulness of emitter feature available in hydraulic network solver (EPANET) as tool for pressure driven model. The emitter based method determines the possible supply at all deficient nodes based on the availability of energy at that node by introduction of an emitter. This method along with three existing approaches has been applied to three benchmark networks and important findings from the study in terms of convergence and numerical results are presented. The framework of head-flow based approaches and proposed method is carried out using toolkits feature available in EPANET hydraulic solver.