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Today we will talk about the distribution of water. A water distribution network consists
of pipes with appurtenances and it transports water from the treatment plant to the consumers
tap. It includes storage, balancing reservoirs and service reservoirs.
It is basically designed to adequately supply the amount of water for domestic purposes,
commercial purposes, industrial purposes and fire fighting purposes and the adequacy of
the design is checked by seeing whether we have enough pressure in the pipeline or not.
A good distribution system should supply water at consumer's tap with reasonable amount of
pressure, it should meet the fire demand and it should maintain the water quality.
When we supply water to the consumers from the treatment plant we add chlorine at the
treatment plant but the residual chlorine at the tap level is more important for the
health of the consumers. So whether in between what is happening to the water quality is
also very important. Water distribution networks should also not have many leaks and then the
wastewater from the ground should not enter into the water distribution network.
Now we have to design a water distribution network such that the water quality is maintained
very well. A water distribution network should also be easy to operate and maintain. It should
not be very difficult to operate these water distribution networks and when we maintain
these networks it should not cause much of a disruption to traffic. A good distribution
system should also be reliable.
What we mean by reliability is, let's say one or two pipes are breaking down in the
system because of that breakage some of the consumers may not be able to get water for
long periods of time. That kind of a water distribution system we say is unreliable.
So the supply should be there even when some breakage is there in the system so it should
be reliable.
As I have already mentioned whenever there is a breakage to the water distribution network
and we go in and repair that it should not cause any disruption to the traffic. And one
of the most important things in the design of water distribution networks is the initial
cost that is the capital cost then we also have the operation cost. Particularly if you
have a pump scheme then we spend lot of power in operating these pumps and the pumping cost
and of course the maintenance cost. Hence, all these three costs namely the capital costs,
the operating costs and the maintenance costs that should be minimal then we say that it
is a very economical design.
Then there are three types of distribution, water distribution systems. They are gravity
system, pumping system and gravity *** pumping or a combined system. Now the choice of these
systems depends upon the topography of the area. We look at these systems in detail now.
What you see here is gravity system, here is the distribution reservoir. Although I
have not shown the treatment plant the treatment plant also could be very close to the distribution
reservoir at a very high level and your distribution area is at a lower level like here, this is
the distribution area which is at a lower level and this is the distribution reservoir
is at a higher level and all the water flows to the distribution area by gravity. As it
flows by gravity in the distribution system you have lot of energy loss so if you plot
your energy grade line or the hydraulic grade line the hydraulic grade line will be drooping.
The Hf here shows what is the friction loss and He is the piezometric head and tail end
of the system and this residual effect you have should be more than what is desired.
What are the problems and what are the advantages of a gravity system?
First of all there may be some pumping required even in the gravity system. particularly if
the source is at a lower level you may have to pump water from the source to either the
treatment plant or if the treatment plant is also close to the source then from the
treatment plant to the distribution reservoir. Now this kind of a system is very very reliable
and it is very economical because there is no operating cost here. There are no pumps
and we are not expending any energy and water flows only by gravity from the distribution
reservoir to the distribution area.
Next we have a combined system. In a combined system what we do is there is a pump house
which pumps water from the treatment plant to an elevated reservoir or a clear water
reservoir which is at a slightly higher elevation. So there is a pumping which is taking place
from the treatment plant to the elevated reservoir and from the elevated reservoir the water
flows to the distribution area by gravity.
This is the most common kind of a system which we have in urban areas. In a pure pumping
system we put a pumping plant and the treatment plant very close to the source. There may
be a dual pumping necessary here that's one stage of pumping from the source to the treatment
plant and another pumping from the treatment plant directly into the distribution system.
Here the water is pumped directly into the distribution system and what you see here
is a pump and pressure head and then in the distribution system you have the drooping
energy grade line or the hydraulic grade line.
Now whatever is the elevation or the energy grade line or the hydraulic grade line at
the tail end of this distribution area it should be more than adequate. Now the problem
with pumping systems is you are pumping water directly into the distribution system so if
there is a power failure to the pumps then the whole distribution comes to a standstill
and the consumers will not get their water.
Another thing is there is variability in the demand. Always in a distribution system there
is variability in the demand and that demand has to be met by variable operation. We have
to choose the speed of the pump accordingly so we may need variable speed pumps for that
purpose. This is the disadvantage of a pumping system.
What are the design constraints? Whenever we are designing a water distribution
network there are certain constraints that our design has to meet. Our object is of course
to see that whatever we have designed the capital cost plus operation cost plus maintenance
cost should be minimal that is our design objective but there are design constraints.
Design constraints are basically to see whether our system is performing properly or not like
at the ferrule level.
A ferrule is a connection from the main system or your water distribution system to the individual
buildings or individual houses that's what we call it a ferrule. And at the ferrule point
you need to have certain amount of residual pressure so there is a constraint on that.
If you are supplying water to a single storey building at the ferrule point you need to
have a minimum of 7 m of head. If it is a double storey building you should have a minimum
of 12 m and if you have a triple storey building you should have a minimum of 17 m of residual
head at the ferrule point. At no time at the ferrule point the residual pressure head should
not be more than 22 m, we do not design for that.
Let us say if you have a very high raised building and you are supplying water through
your system then what you have to do is you have to ask those people to have a sump or
whatever and then you supply water to that sump not to the overhead tank of their building
because you cannot cross this twenty two meters limit and they can put a pump and from their
sump they can take it to their overhead tank. Otherwise if the pressure is not building
enough as you desire then you may have to use a booster pump in such locations.
Again there is another constraint in terms of the flow velocities. You have a minimum
flow velocity that is to see that like there is no suspended matter which settles down.
If the velocity in the pipeline is very low then the suspended matter may settle down
and the water pipelines may get choked. Not only that if the velocity is not high then
the water quality also gets deteriorated. You should not have any stagnant water in
this distribution system so you need to maintain a minimum velocity of 0.6 m per second. Similarly
there is a constraint on the maximum velocity. The constraint of maximum velocity is 2.3
meters per second. We cannot have any velocities anywhere in the system which is greater than
2.3 m per second this is because of the transients.
If the transients get created in your system that is if the velocity changes by one unit
then there is a corresponding change in the pressure which is going to be very high so
your initial velocities itself you should not have very very high velocities so you
need to have a maximum constraint on the velocity which is around 2.3 m per second as per the
Indian standards.
Then in a water distribution system you have two different types of operations.
They are continuous systems and intermittent systems. In a continuous system the water
is available twenty four hours a day. Now that is the one which all the consumers would
love to have. If we have enough water that we can supply then we can supply at the enough
pressure the desired pressure. But then that kind of a system is going to be leading to
lot of wastage of water. First of all if the people know that the water is being supplied
twenty four hours a day then they tend to waste water in the houses or in the buildings.
Not only that if you are supplying water twenty four hours a day let's say there is some leakage
in the pipeline and if you are supplying twenty four hours a day then the amount of water
that goes out of this particular leak will also be very high so there is more wastage
of water in an continuous system. But one advantage of a continuous system is you can
easily maintain the water quality in the distribution system.
We go for intermittent system of operation particularly when you cannot supply water
to all the localities in the municipality at the desired pressure and sometimes enough
quantity of water may not be available. Intermittent system is basically the water you are supplying
only at fixed hours in a day.
There are some problems with this intermittent systems. It is because your fire fighting
cannot be met adequately. Let's say you are not supplying water through your distribution
system and then suddenly the fire breaks out now that time we cannot draw water from your
distribution system. Then it also requires some amount of domestic storage because you
are supplying water only during few hours but then you need water throughout the day.
So, at the domestic level you need storage. And because it is operating for only few hours
a day the water quality cannot be maintained adequately in an intermittent system if you
are not careful.
Another important thing is in an intermittent system you may have used greater sizes of
pipes because the whole day's quantity or the demand is met only during few hours of
the day or let's say eighty percent of the demand is met only three hours of the day
that means the discharge or the flow rate through all these pipes will be very high.
So, to carry the particular discharge you need to have larger sizes of pipes so that
may be very uneconomical.
Again in any water distribution network we not only have the pipes but we also have reservoirs.
There are two types of reservoirs; one is the storage reservoir and the other one is
a distribution reservoir. A storage reservoir basically is meant to store the filtered water
that is coming from the treatment plant. We may operate the distribution network only
for some few hours but then you need to store the water to meet the demand for twenty hours
a day. That means the capacity of the storage tank is normally we take about fourteen to
sixteen hours of daily average flow then we also have distribution reservoirs. The distribution
reservoirs are meant to meet fluctuating demands, they are also meant for equalizing operating
pressures.
First of all in any distribution network the flow rates in the system are going to vary
even on hourly basis or on minute basis sometimes. So we have to be able to absorb these variations
in the demand that is coming from the distribution system by putting a distribution reservoir.
If we don't have these distribution reservoirs then we may have to have variable speed pumps.
That means we cannot operate the pumps at a uniform speed. So if you don't have a variable
speed of pumps then it's going to have an effect on the pump life and the pump efficiency.
What we do is when we have a distribution reservoir the pump will be operating at a
constant speed and we will be taking that entire intake but then the distribution system
itself may not be requiring all this water that the pump is giving. So, if the pumping
rate is more than your demand then the water will be stored in the distribution reservoir
and may be at a later stage your pump may be giving certain discharge but your demand
is very high. If the demand is higher than the pump discharge that is coming out then
you take that extra water from the distribution reservoirs. Therefore, in that way we can
operate the pumps at a uniform speed.
Now what happens with this is it will actually reduce the sizes of your pipes, it will reduce
the sizes of your pumps, it will also reduce the sizes of appurtenances and all those things.
So because of this reduction in the sizes it also can reduce the size of your treatment
plant and because of this reduction in size you can achieve economy.
Distribution reservoirs can also store water for emergency purposes and in fact can be
used to maintain almost an approximate uniform pressure throughout your distribution system,
this we will see later.
Now there are two types of reservoirs like surface reservoirs and elevated reservoirs.
The surface reservoirs are typically made of masonry or concrete but when you construct
these surface reservoirs you have to line them up so that there is no leakage from the
surface reservoirs so appropriate liners should be used for this purpose. Again for the surface
reservoirs we also have to compartmentalize I mean we divide the whole surface reservoir
into several compartments and these compartments, let's say I have two compartments one compartment
I can dry it up and then I can use it for maintenance whereas the other compartment
can be used for storing the water and then supplied to the distribution system.
The surface reservoirs you have to locate it at very high points in that particular
area so the water can go from the surface reservoir to the distribution area by gravity.
We also have the elevated reservoirs. These elevated reservoirs are the ones we normally
see in any urban area or what we call as overhead tanks. These overhead tanks in the earlier
days were made of steel. In fact most of the railways whenever they have these overhead
tanks they are all made of steel or older ones but the current trend is to make these
elevated reservoirs using concrete. This you would have seen when you would have traveled
in trains. These elevated reservoirs can also come in different shapes and sizes like rectangular
shape can be used, circular shape can be used and conical shape can be used and so on and
forth and the most common type of an elevated reservoir is the Intze tank.
Now the location of these distribution reservoirs depends upon the topography of the area and
how well you want to maintain your pressures, how uniformly you want to maintain the pressure.
They are typically located centrally so that any farthest from that distribution reservoir
is more or less, let's say I have a point here, this is of equal distance from this
distribution reservoir, another point is here and this is also almost at the same distance
from the distribution reservoir so that way the head loss here will be almost equal to
the head loss here so the pressure here and the pressure here may be maintained more or
less same. Again the central location of the distribution reservoirs basically is meant
to reduce the frictional losses.
The distribution reservoir capacity depends upon how much you want to equalize your pressure
and the flow rates and how much of storage you want to provide for service during the
breakdown and then how much of storage you want to provide for fire fighting. The breakdown
reserve is typically taken as 25% of total storage if repairs last only for few hours.
Let's say if the repairs are going to last for lot more hours then you need to have much
more storage for supplying water during the breakdown.
Distribution reservoir capacity for equalizing: This figure you see here is what we call a
mass curve analysis. In a mass curve analysis the time of the day is plotted on the x axis
and the accumulated flow in millions of liters is plotted on the y axis. When I say accumulated
flow what I mean is cumulative flow, if you look at this curve here this curve that I
am showing this one is also denoted here as cumulative demand curve.
Let's say you start the day at zero hours and as it proceeds you add up all the demand
as the time progresses and you plot that cumulative demand curve. And if you are having twenty
four hours of continuous pumping you need to meet this total demand which is at this
point, this is the total demand in the day that I have to meet by pumping uniformly for
twenty four hours so if I join this point and the point over here that will give you
the cumulative pumping.
Now if you look at this point here that A and A prime the A and A prime tells you at
this particular point than the total pumping up till this point is much more than the total
demand that needed to be met during that time so the pumping rate is more than what we needed
in the distribution system so this extra water needs to be stored and where will we store
this, we will store this in distribution reservoir.
How did I get this A? I got this A by basically drawing a tangent to my cumulative demand
curve and that line should be parallel to this cumulative pumping curve.
the tangent this line here the dotted line that should be tangent to the cumulative demand
curve at the same time it should be parallel to the cumulative pumping curve and I see
what is the difference between this value and this value and that is what is needed
here, this AA prime is what I need to store during those periods when my pumping rate
is more than my demand.
If you look in this location here again I have a tangent BB prime which is tangent to
the cumulative demand curve at the same time it is also parallel to cumulative pumping
curve. Now at this stage what kind of a situation we have? My demand is more than my pumping
rate. That means because my pumping rate is less than the demand I have to meet that extra
demand by depleting from the storage and that is the water I am going to get from the distribution
reservoir. This particular intercept here the bb prime is what is required to take it
out from my distribution reservoir. So the total capacity of the distribution reservoir
is equal to BB prime plus AA prime or the distance between this BB prime the tangent
to the demand curve at this location and the tangent to the demand curve at this location.
This is how I will find out the capacity of the distribution reservoir.
Now the distribution reservoirs are also used for storing water for fire fighting purposes.
The supply water for fire fighting purposes is normally based upon how long the fire is
going to last and under what kind of development I mean how many people are going to get affected
by this particular fire.
Typically we calculate the amount of water that is required to fight a fire which is
going to last for ten hours and in an area where six thousand people are living. You
can also find out the capacity for fire fighting and that I have to include in my distribution
reservoir using this equation R is equal to (F minus P) T where R is the reservoir storage
in liters that I have to allocate for fire fighting and then F is equal to fire demand
in liters per minute and P is the reserve per pumping capacity. Sometimes I can meet
this fire demand by increasing the pump capacity itself rather than taking it from the distribution
reservoir that's why I have this F minus P so P is a reserve for pumping capacity and
T is equal to duration of fire in minutes.
The other important thing about the distribution systems is the layout. Layout of a distribution
system is very very important in ensuring reliable water supply and also for designing
a very economical system. There are four typical layouts we adopt for distribution systems
layout. The first one is a tree system or a dead end system.
In a tree system you have a main line which is coming from the treatment plant or a distribution
reservoir and then this main line branches off into several submains. There is one submain
here, there is one submain here and there is one submain here and from the submain we
branch off into what we call branches like I have a branch here, I have a branch here,
one branch, a branch here and a branch here and from the branch it gets divided into what
we call a service connection. In this tree system the water always flows in one direction.
Like here the water is flowing in this direction, the water is flowing in this direction, water
is flowing in this direction and I have dead ends at the ends of the system that is why
it is also called a dead end system.
Let's see what are the advantages and disadvantages of a tree system. A tree system is very economical
to design. That is because in a tree system you have the capacity of the pipes the size
of the pipes keeps getting reduced as I go to the downstream side because only the main
will have to carry all the water and the end of the system don't have to carry much water.
So the sizes of the pipes get reduced as I go into the downstream direction in a tree
system so it is very economical to design.
It always leads to a simple layout. You just follow the roads and the things like that
so you have a very very simple layout. Again whenever I have a system like this I need
to have what we call cutoff valves or isolation valves. That means when I want to maintain
this particular part of the system I need to have a cutoff valve which will cut off
that particular part from the main distribution line. So, in a tree type system as I have
shown a figure here I need a cut off valve here, I need a cut off valve here, I need
a cut off valve here, I need a cut off valve here like that. So if you look at this configuration
the number of cutoff valves in a tree type system will be very very less, that is another
advantage. Another advantage is not an advantage in terms of layout or anything like that but
it is very simple to analyze.
The disadvantages of a tree type system are you have pockets in the system. There are
some areas where water will be very stagnant. Stagnant water can deteriorate the quality
of water so we should avoid that. It is not as much possible to avoid this stagnation
of water as it is for other types of the system. Now, because the stagnation pools are there
it will also accumulate some sediment. If some suspended matter or sediment is there
they also get accumulated.
Now a large number of scour valves are required to scour this particular sediment out of the
system so that way although we are economizing in terms of not having many cutoff valves
we are going to spend more money in terms of having more scour valves and if you look
at the layout here let us say this particular line here breaks. If the line here breaks
then this area, this area and all the areas that I am showing here will not be getting
the water. So that way you don't have much reliability of water supply in case of breakdowns
if you go for a tree type of a system. The other disadvantage is discharge for fire fighting
could be less in the tail end areas if you go for a tree type of a system.
The other type of a system is what we call a grid iron system. in the grid iron system
you have a main and this main gets branched off into submains here like there is a submain
here and a submain here, a submain here, and the submain gets branched off into a branch
line and you have so many of these cutoff valves to isolate any of the pipe for maintenance
purposes or when a repair is required and so on and so forth.
If you look at the grid iron system as compared to a tree system let us say I have this area.
If in this area the water can come along this route or along this route or along this route
so even if one of the pipeline breaks or two of the pipeline breaks I will still be able
to supply water to a particular area so the reliability is already built into the system,
the reliability in terms of being able to supply water during the breakdown. Not only
that but you will also be able to maintain the pressures in a much better fashion as
compared to a tree type of a system, this is the advantage of a grid iron system.
There are no stagnation points in grid iron system and because of that the number of scour
valves will be less and as I already mentioned there is more reliable water supply. The disadvantage
is large number of cutoff valves. I don't think that is really a disadvantage in terms
of, may be for a very very large system the number of cutoff valves will be very high
and things like that but one should not worry about that.
The other main disadvantage of a grid iron system is, if you look at the figure you compare
the grid iron system I am showing here with the tree type of a system that I am showing
now between these two systems which one will have longer lengths of pipes. It is obvious
that grid iron system will have longer lengths of the pipes and not only that but it will
also have large diameter of pipes.
Let's say for example a demand here is being met through this pipeline as well as this
pipeline or may be this pipeline, this pipeline and this pipeline, the demand here is being
shared by several pipelines so this pipeline which is supplying the demand here as well
as which is catering to the demand here it may have to carry more amount of water so
the size of the pipeline also will be larger. Typically the sizes of the pipelines will
be larger in a grid iron system compared to a tree type of a system.
The third type of a layout is your ring system. The advantages and disadvantages of a ring
system compared to a tree type system are exactly similar to what we have for a grid
iron system except there is only a difference in terms of the layout.
Here I have a main which branches off into two mains like in a circular fashion and then
joins here and again it goes off and within this particular ring I will have my submains,
branches and service connections like there is a submain here and there is a submain here,
there is a submain here and there is a submain here so this is what we call a ring system.
with the ring system what happens is because this main line is going to be of a larger
diameter pipeline the pressure drop from here to here will be much less. You know that the
pressure drop is inversely proportional to the fifth power of diameter. So, if the diameter
is large then the pressure drop will be less. Therefore the lengths of the mains are very
long in the ring system as you can see in this particular figure.
The last type of system I want to show you is the radial system. In the radial system
the main will come here and it will be connected to the four distribution reservoirs that I
am showing here. There is a distribution reservoir here, there is a distribution reservoir here,
there is a distribution reservoir here and there is a distribution reservoir here. So
this main will be primarily supplying water to the distribution reservoirs and from each
distribution reservoir the water will be flowing along the radial, the pipe is laid out in
a radial fashion in that particular area where you are supplying the water like I am showing
hereSimilarly this one will supply to this particular area. So in this way it will happen.
Also because these distribution reservoirs can be elevated the reservoir will be able
to maintain the pressures much more uniformly in a radial system.
Now what are the design steps that I have to take for designing a water distribution
network. This is very very important. First thing you need to do for designing a distribution
network is you have to conduct surveys. After conducting the surveys like topographical
survey, geographical survey and survey for laying out the street lines like roads and
whatever utilities you may have like electrical lines so for all that you need to conduct
surveys. After conducting the survey you come and then fix the alignment of raising main.
Let's say you have a distribution reservoir or a storage reservoir then you have a raising
main from your treatment plant to that particular reservoir. So, if you fix the alignment for
the raising main you locate the reservoirs depending upon the topography and for that
you need the topographical map of the area. so you have to have the topographical map
of the area also and then you also have to have a detailed map of the town which is showing
all the roads other utilities that are going along the roadside like drainage pipelines,
electrical contours and so on and so forth now those things again should be shown according
to the cross sections of the streets etc as to where exactly these lines are there.
After getting all this information, in fact the current practice is you can use a Geographical
Information System GIS package or whatever for collating all this information into a
GIS information system. The next thing is you make a tentative layout, mark a tentative
layout of a pipeline. Then after marking the tentative layout of the pipeline depending
upon to which area you want to supply the water you show the positions of the reservoirs,
valves and other appurtenances.
From the maps and the way the pipelines are laid and the areas to which these pipelines
are supplying the water go to those areas conduct the population survey other census
survey or from the census data you will be able to get what is the population that is
being served by each pipeline.
If you know what is the population being served and then you also know how much water you
have to supply depending upon the demand let's say 100 LPCD or 150 LPCD and so on so forth
you will be able to find out what would be the carrying capacity or what should be the
carrying capacity of each of these pipelines or what should be the demand at each of the
nodes in the net block. That you can get from the population density and the area that you
have.
What you need to do is you need to assume appropriate diameters for these pipelines
and after that you have to analyze the system. At this stage what we have is we have the
network, we have the connectivity of these pipelines and we also have their lengths,
the diameters we would have chosen the material for the pipeline like asbestos, cement pipelines
or concrete pipelines or galvanized iron pipelines or plastic pipelines or whatever depending
upon the material you know what is the resistance to the flow of these particular pipelines.
We have all these data so we can check for pressures in the system at different locations
by analyzing the system. When you are checking for the pressures or when you are analyzing
the distribution system you will also be getting the flow rate in each of these pipelines then
you can check for whether the assumed diameters or the assumed system is able to meet all
the constraints.
I have already mentioned to you what are the constraints. Let's say the pressure at any
ferrule point should be greater than seven meters if it is serving a single storey building
or the velocity should be greater than point six meters per second or the velocity should
be less than two point three meters per second and so on and so forth. So you check whether
these constraints are being met or not. Once these constraints are met that means you have
chosen a plausible system which can serve your purpose but then you don't stop at this
stage you assume another set of diameters. Once you assume another set of diameters you
go and then do this analysis all over again and see whether it is meeting your constraints
or not.
Let us say this is not meeting your constraints. That means in this particular set of diameters
or what we call the decision variables in our design should be thrown out. You choose
another set of diameter and then do the analysis. Now, after doing this you repeat this procedure
for several of these alternative set of diameters that you have chosen. Let's say you have chosen
some twenty of them and out of twenty twelve are meeting your constraints and eight are
not meeting your constraints you throw these eight alternatives out which are not meeting
the constraints you choose the other twelve so out of this other twelve you see which
one is giving you the least cost because you know the lengths and you know the diameter,
you know the material so you will be able to find out what is the cost of your system
in terms of the capital cost. You also see, if it's a gravity system then you will not
have much operating costs coming into the picture so you take this capital cost and
see out of these twelve design alternatives that you have which is giving you the minimum
cost and you choose that one.
Now if you do this and if you take a very very large system let's say you have 500 loads
and then 600 pipelines so to know how many alternatives that you can do and what is the
amount of time you are going to take for analyzing this you cannot do hand calculations and you
have to use the software packages and many of the software packages are readily available
these days like for example you can use what we call KY pipe, this is a software package
developed by the Kentucky University that you can use, this is commercially available
in the market and there is two levels of doing this. One is the simulations what we call
the analysis of the system. You can do this analysis but then when I say you choose twelve
alternatives or twenty alternatives where do I stop, do I stop at hundred alternatives
or do I go for six hundred alternatives because let's say if I have 600 pipes and then each
pipe can take four or five different values of the commercially available diameters then
you see how many alternatives that you can have so that kind of a design the design that
gives you the least cost cannot be done by hand calculations so you need to have what
we call optimization subroutines for doing this.
There are methods which are available for doing this and that is beyond the level of
this particular course. You can learn that in an advanced course on how to do the optimal
design of a water distribution network. Before I go to the water distribution network analysis
I want to tell you one more thing. Here I talked only about the diameters like I said
select the systems that satisfies all the constraints and is most economical. Here I
have not talked about the design of the layout itself. at a outer level there could be many
many layouts which are possible, which can supply the water and which is reliable then
which layout would you choose, so that is the outer loop in your design procedure.
Let's say first you choose a particular layout and for that particular layout you choose
what are the most economical diameters you can get then you change the layout and again
for the second alternative layout again you choose the optimal diameters that are possible.
Like this you can have an outer loop for designing the layout itself. While doing that layout
design you also have to talk to field engineers to see what kind of a field constraint that
may come in. you may go and then give a particular route but then the field engineer may go in
and say that it is not possible for me to acquire land for laying this pipeline or if
I try to lay this pipeline these are the problems I am going to have. So you have to incorporate
those kinds of constraints also while doing the design of the water distribution networks.
Now let's talk about this distribution network analysis. What is this distribution network
analysis, what is the definition of the problem?
I give a very simple problem here. I have a network of five pipes and I have nodes one
two three and four. When I say demand here that means from node 4 there will be a system
that is going in a local level system which is going to draw water from this major system
to meet the demand here. So if this node 4 is catering to certain number of people depending
upon that population and the supply rate let's say 100 LPCD or 150 liters per capita per
day or whatever I will be able to find out what is the demand. So in the network here
I have already given you what is the configuration of the thing.
I have given you the layout and I will give you what is the demand here, what is the demand
here and what is the demand here and this particular network is being served by a distribution
reservoir here. I will also tell you what is the water level in the distribution reservoir.
So, given the water level in the distribution reservoir the demands and the pipelines and
the lengths of the pipelines and the diameters of the pipelines the question is what would
be the piezometric head at node 3, node 4 and node 2 and what is the flow rate in pipe
4, pipe 3, pipe 1, pipe 2 etc. That means I have to find out the discharges in all the
pipes and the pressures or the piezometric heads at all the nodes.
Please note the piezometric head at node 1 is known because this node 1 is connected
to a distribution reservoir. If I know what is the water level in the distribution reservoir
then I would know what is the piezometric head. So piezometric head at 1 is known but
2 and 3 and 4 is what I am trying to find out. Once I do this analysis then I will be
able to go and see whether the pressure here at node 2 is more than what I require and
whether the velocity in pipe 3 is more than 0.6 meters per second and less than 2.3 m
per second etc so that way the analysis is very important.
This analysis is based on three basic principles. One is flow into a node is equal to flow out
of a node. like if you take node 2 the flow rate let's say is coming into node through
pipe 1 so flow rate at pipe 1 should be equal to let's say the flow is going out of the
node 2 towards the node 3 so that is flow out and similarly flow is going from two to
four so that's also an outflow. So Q1 the discharge in one should be equal to discharge
in three plus discharge in four plus the demand. So the flow in should be equal to flow out
that is one principle.
Then piezometric head at any node is same irrespective of path we take for computation.
That means let's say I have node 4, I know the piezometric head at one, piezometric head
at three is equal to piezometric head at one minus the loss in pipe 2 then loss in pipe
5 will give me piezometric head at four. Similarly the piezometric head at four can also be determined
through the other route. That is piezometric head at one minus loss in pipe 1 minus loss
in pipe 4 is equal to piezometric head at 4. So irrespective of which path I take, I
take this path or this path or I can go in this path so whichever path I take the piezometric
head at four should be the same that is the second principle.
The third principle is the head loss in any particular pipeline is equal to RQ square
where Q is the flow rate, Hu is the head piezometric head at the upstream end and Hd is the piezometric
head at the downstream end, R is the resistance factor. If I am using the Darsey Weisbach
equation for calculating the head loss then R is equal to fL by 2 g pi by 4 square D to
the power of 5 where D is the diameter of the pipeline and L is the length of the pipeline
and f is the Darsey Weisbach friction factor. I can also use other equations for finding
out this resistance.
What are the methods of analysis in terms of the formulation?
These principles can be used to formulate the problem. So the formulation could be as
I mentioned node balance method or it could be a loop balance method. Then this formulation
means I will formulate a set of mathematical equations which describe the flow process
in this network that is the formulation. Once I get this set of mathematical equations then
I should have how to solve these mathematical equations, there are several ways of solving
these mathematical equations. As you see a little later these set of mathematical equations
will be a set of non linear algebraic equations. So I have to have a method for simultaneously
solving this set of non linear algebraic equations and that can be done through two methods that
is what I call the solution. It is either Picard iteration method or Newton-Raphson
method.
In this particular lecture we only talk about the formulation. Now, referring to the figure
the demand at each node is known. R for each pipe is known because I know the length, I
know the diameter and I know the material of the pipe so I know the resistance factor
for each pipe and I also know the piezometric head at node 1 because the piezometric head
at node 1 is related to what is the water level in the reservoir so H one is also known.
What are the unknowns? I need to know what is the flow rate in each pipe that is Q and
piezometric heads H2, H3 and H4.
You look at this figure H2 H3 and H4 H3 and H4 I need to find out, Q1 Q2 and Q3 Q4 and
Q5 also I need to find out. Now how do I formulate this? There are eight unknowns and we require
eight equations. In fact as I go through this I will show you how to reduce this number
of equations, you may not require all the eight equations. We first write a flow balance
equation at node 2. When I write the flow balance equation at node 2 looking at the
figure I can say that Q1 that is the inflow minus Q3 that is the outflow at node 2 minus
Q4 that is the outflow at node 2 to us for and the demand at node 2 that is De2 so they
should balance out.
Now, to get the flow rate of Q1 here it depends upon head at one and head at 2. So Q1 can
be written in terms of H1 minus H2 divided R1 square root. Again Q1 depends upon head
at 1 and head at 2. So Q1 square will be H1 minus H2 so Q1 is equal to H1 minus H2 by
R1 square root.
Now in the WDN analysis I get this equation for the flow balance at any node like
H1 minus H2 by R1 square root, H2 minus H3 by R3 square root, H2 minus H4 by R4 square
root minus De2 is equal to 0 that is the nodal balance equation at node 2. Similarly, I can
write nodal balance equations at other node, node 3 and node 4. Now I have three equations.
In these three equations R1 R3 and R4 De2 De3 De4 R3 R4 here all these things are known
and H1 is also known and the only unknowns are H2 H3 and H4. So I have three equations
and I have three unknowns. So these three equations and three unknowns can be solved
for simultaneously.
Therefore, depending upon the number of nodes I have and depending upon the number of reservoirs
I have, that means the number of reservoirs I have means you know the reservoir water
level so if I know the reservoir water level the node connected to that reservoir will
know what is the head at that node. So the number of equations depends upon the number
of nodes I have in the system minus whatever the number of reservoirs I have.
Let's say in this particular case I have four nodes and one reservoir so the number of equations
that come is three equations in three unknowns and these three equations can be solved for
H2 H3 and H4. Once I solve for H2 H3 and H4 I go back to my resistance equation.
Thus in any pipeline I know the flow rate is proportional to what is the head at the
upstream node. So, for any particular pipe I know what the upstream node is and what
the downstream node is. If I know what is the upstream node and what is the downstream
node I will be able to find out what is the flow rate in that particular pipe because
I know what is the length and what is the diameter so this is what I will use for basically
analyzing the network.
Now this I have already told you that I have three equations I use for an appropriate numerical
method.
As you can see these equations here are non linear equations, they are algebraic but they
are non linear equations. Now when you want to solve this system of non linear equations
there are many numerical methods which are possible. One is the trial and error method.
I will assume what is H2 and what is H3 and try to get what is H4 here and I will substitute
what is H4 here and assume value of H3 here and get a better value of H2. I can keep doing
this trial and error procedure and iterative procedure. Once I do this eventually as the
iterations proceed I may have stable values of this H2 H3 and H4 and I say that the system
has conversed. This is an iterative what we call numerical method.
However, one has to be very careful while solving these equations these numerical methods.
You may start with assumed values of these unknowns H2 H3 and H4 then as your iterations
proceed you may never be converging to certain definite values of H2 and H3 or the correct
values of H2 and H3 and H4. In that case we say that numerical method is diverging. So
you have to choose a proper numerical method for solving the system of equations. There
are several methods for doing this. As I mentioned we have the Picard iteration method and Newton-Raphson
iteration method. Now Picard iteration method is lot more stable than Newton-Raphson method
but that also one cannot say. Some methods which are very stable for certain systems
may not be very stable for other systems that are why people keep working very much into
finding out more and more numerical methods for solving these equations. Anyway we can
solve this system of equations by anyway of these methods and then we can get the solution.
Now in the way we formulated here that can be extended if valves are present or if pumps
are present and it is also not very difficult to put all these things in a computer code.
I have already told you about a computer code developed by University of Kentucky called
KY pipe. But you also have computer course developed by other agencies like EPANET that
is developed by United States Environment Production Agency. This particular program
is available on the internet one can easily download this particular thing in the internet
and one can use it for solution purposes, in fact you can do it yourselves, you can
download it from the internet and it is very easy and you will see how the input should
be given then the network program will make the analysis and will give you the results.
This EPANET will also actually track the chlorine concentration in a network. If you give what
is the chlorine concentration or what is the chlorine dosage at the treatment plant it
will also tell what will be chlorine concentration at different points in the network and you
can compare that with whatever the standards you may have and see whether the water quality
is maintained properly or not.
In this particular lecture I just want to summarize; I gave an overview of what is the
water distribution network and what are the different criteria or the constraints that
a good design should meet. I talked about what are the different layouts for the water
distribution network and we also discussed about the distribution reservoirs, how to
find out what is the capacity of the distribution reservoir, we looked at different layouts
for the water distribution network then we looked at the design steps, what are the steps
we should follow designing these networks and how to analyze a given distribution network.
Let us say somebody comes and then gives you that these are lengths, these are the diameters
these are the networks so can you tell me what are the pressures at different locations,
what are the flow rates, can you analyze this network then tell me whether it is meeting
all my constraints or not. You will be able to do through water distribution network analysis,
we have also seen this. I mentioned about Newton-raphson method,
I also mentioned about other numerical methods like Picard method, I leave it as an exercise.
Basically you can go in deep a little bit to know more about these things and in the
next lecture probably we will go and look at aspects of drainage networks.