Electromagnetic Pulses (EMPs) are short bursts of electromagnetic radiation. While small EMPs can occur normally, large EMPs can interfere with or even destroy electric power supplies and electronic equipment. EMPs can occur naturally from solar flares or lightening, or they can be created by human threat actors. They can be produced by high and low-altitude nuclear weapons; geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) caused by coronal mass ejections; and by small portable devices employed to produce electromagnetic interference (IEMI).

Most hydraulic engineers would admit that the Darcy-Weisbach equation is the most theoretically correct equation for head loss in pipe flow. It is based on a force balance between the driving forces of pressure and gravity, offset by head loss and can be applied to any Newtonian fluid. It’s pretty elegant looking.

OpenFlows WaterGEMS offers a set of features that that make water network design easier, including an unmatched platform interoperability (CAD & GIS) and Scenario Management tools.

Pretty much all well-run water utilities periodically develop a master plan. The plan looks out 20, 30, 40 years and tries to layout development in source, treatment, and distribution systems. Based on the best available demand forecast, pipes, tanks, and pumps are laid out to evolve the system efficiently.

In most water systems, the tank water levels “float on the system” (orange system in the profile below). The HGL in the tank is the same as the nominal hydraulic grade in the system.

Read Tom Walski’s blog to learn about inner, outer, and nominal pipe diameter and the differences these pipe diameters have in your hydraulic modeling. Various types of concrete pipe are the exception to this table in that such pipe is essentially designer pipe where the pressure class depends much more on the prestressing wire rather than the thickness of the concrete, which is really there to prevent the pipe from being crushed. For such pipe, the nominal diameter is close to the ID.

Disinfectants like chlorine and chloramines work by oxidizing chemicals and microbes in the water, and that’s why we use them. The problem is that by doing their job, their concentration decreases, and it’s possible to end up with low or zero levels of disinfectant residuals. You can’t continuously monitor residuals everywhere in your system. Your OpenFlows WaterGEMS and OpenFlows WaterCAD models can help you determine residual disinfectant levels throughout the system, identify problems and develop approaches to maintain residuals such as changing dosing, switching disinfectants, adding booster stations, flushing, and blowoffs, …