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Data required for modeling hydraulic pipe networks |
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We have to make a hydraulic model of a city piping system in EPANET or any other software. What data do I need to collect? Follow the necessary data.
For the preparation of the model.
- Shapes files with the topology of the network, including diameters of all the pipes, locations of operational valves and water metering sector boundaries, locations of pressure reducing valves, their diameters and settings.
- Digital Elevation or Terrain Model (DEM) or digital mapping or topography with elevations, so that elevations can be assigned to nodes. This information can be found in GIS information as vector files of the type DXF or SHP.
- Data from the pumping stations or booster pumps. The data required are the working number of pumps and their characteristic curves.
- Data on water levels in sources (reservoirs), treatment plants, pumping stations, tanks. Data of volumes of tanks.
- Database or table of average consumption of geolocated users, which may be a shape file with points of each user and a reference table of these users and their average reading of water volume consumed.
- Reading of income flow to water metering areas or any study that would enable an estimation of demand curves in time.
For calibration of the model.
- Hourly measurements of pressure, flow, water levels at selected points of at least one week.
- Flow test performed.
- Timely operation of network elements such as starts and stops pumping schedules, operation of valves, etc.
- Any studies of leakages or state of the network. |
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Steps to draw a topographic profile in AutoCAD Civil 3D |
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Having a surface in civil 3d, it is easy to draw a profile from it. For that we just have to draw a polyline through where we want the profile, turn it into alignment (In option Aligments -> Create from Polyline aligment) and then create the profile from the surface.
Using these steps will create a profile from data of abscissa and heights of land we have in an excel sheet. With these data we have to build the surface. First will create three columns in Excel X, Y and Z. The X column that we have, we make a constant Y = 10 for example, and the Z representing the heights. Now we have a group and points with a constant Y. If now we increase the Y in 10, we get three groups of points for Y = 10, 20, 30. Then we convert the spreadsheet to CSV and import it from the Civil 3D using the menu option "Import Points".
To import the points we should consider choosing the option ENZ (comma delimited) and mark "Add items to a Group of Points" defining a name for the group.
We then create a new surface and the Surface option -> Definition -> Point Groups, right-click "Add" and choose the group of points that we had created earlier. We already have the surface.
The next step is to draw a polyline from one side to another and convert it into alignment. Once this is done we can build the profile from the polyline.
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How to Make a longitudinal section of land in Civil 3d? |
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Given a table of two columns in excel with the abscissa and the heights, we save it as a space-delimited text file (prn), change the extension to txt and then from the AutoCAD Civil 3D go to the "Create profile from file" and import the file with the points.
Another way to create the txt file is saved as csv or comma delimited text. Then we opened in the notepad editor and replace the commas for space and change the extension to txt.
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Did you know that EPANET can be run on linux? |
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Today I learned that EPANET, a free software for analysis of pipe networks, runs on linux perfectly. In the article about simulation of pipeline networks with Epanet you can see a screenshot and commentary of the author's site, which made the calculation of an engine cooling system, all in EPANET on Wine. |
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Water Supply Calibration Contest |
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There is a Battle of a water supply network calibration at the following link. The bases of a competition are to calibrate a water supply network of a city C-Town. If you're motivated in technical issue about calibration of hydraulic networks, this is a great opportunity to measure your experience or knowledge in the area. We are trying to calibrate using the fast messy genetic algorithm and will discuss about the steps we used and the results in future article.
The C-Town city is sectioned into 5 zones, each which receives water pumped. The network has five pumping stations. The main that supply to the area 1 and two water storage tanks, from which four pumps take water. The results of the flow test are given and week's data of flows and tank levels taken from the scada at the outlet of each pump. We also have an inp (EPANET) file, with curve characteristics of the pumps, diameter of tanks, and settings of control valves. So with all those data, get to work. Good luck in the calibration results! |
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