Hydraulic Analysis of Peak Demand in Looped Water Distribution Networks

Abstract

The work presented in the paper intends to solve the problem of analyzing a looped network taking into account the expected peak flows in the links. Usually, models are based on averaged demands based on the customers’ billings. In some cases, demands are corrected with global peak coefficients. The writers propose a new approach for analyzing water supply networks under peak demand situations. This method is based on individual peak coefficients for each link. After that, a new method for demand load allocation is described in order to satisfy the continuity equation in nodes. The procedure is iterative and was implemented using the hydraulic solver used by EPANET. Two case studies complete the paper. The first case study consists of a very simple network and allows one to describe the method. The second one is a small, real network and demonstrates the applicability to bigger networks.