Books
When I would walk into an engineering office (before the pandemic), I would be concerned by the lack of books on the shelves. I’m told that everything you need these days is on the internet.
Part 2: Beyond Hydraulics – Real World Water and Sewer System Design
The exact right-of-way for a pipe or land acquisition for a tank or pump station is not generally considered in explicitly in master planning but can have a significant effect on costs. Costs can vary dramatically and are not simply a function of diameter. Over a reasonable range of pipe sizes, the effects of laying condition far outweigh the effect of pipe size in determining cost.
Part 1: Beyond Hydraulics – Real World Water and Sewer System Design
This blog series attempts to present some important considerations in system design that are important but generally are overlooked in schools. Experienced engineers will be familiar with these issues, but inexperienced engineers run into them frequently until they learn.
Wave Speed for Transient Analysis
One of the most important inputs to transient analysis is the speed of the pressure wave (called celerity) moving through the pipes. The speed depends on the fluid properties and pipe properties and has a significant impact on the magnitude of the transient pressure wave and the speed at which it moves through the pipes.
Abusing Affinity
The current technology for converting a constant speed pump into a variable speed pump is a variable frequency drive (VFD). In certain situations, converting a pump into a variable speed pump can save a considerable amount of energy. However, in some cases, installing a VFD won’t even pay for the cost of the VFD, and in others, it’s possible to use even more energy by using variable speed pumping. How can that be?
Finding Closed Valves (Before They Find You)
Isolation valves are an essential part of water distribution systems. Without them, a single pipe break can shut down an entire system while repairs are performed.
What’s the Right Velocity for Flushing?
Flushing water mains is one of the accepted methods for cleaning a water main and reduce water quality complaints due to color and turbidity, or to bring fresh water with a high disinfectant residual into an area with low disinfectant residual.
Which Head Loss Equation is Right?
In order to do any kind of hydraulic modeling, whether it is for water distribution, sewage or stormwater, it is necessary to determine the head loss over a range of flow rates. Much of the early days of hydraulic engineering were consumed with engineers trying to come up with the right equation to do these calculations.
Modeling Complicated Controls in Water Systems
Modeling pump status or speed or valve position is generally pretty straightforward in most automatically controlled systems.
Premise Plumbing
Pressure and water quality could deteriorate in the customer’s plumbing system. The problem has become more acute with regard to the COVID-19 crisis in that many buildings such as schools, hotels and offices have been shut down for extended periods and need to be brought back online. But the quality of water in the pipes is poor. Modeling can help plan flushing the system.