Principal Software Development Engineer Autodesk Inc., Pennsylvania, United States
Abstract Submission: Sustainability efforts are increasingly focusing on better understanding and controlling leaks in water distribution systems. Traditionally, utilities and consultants have overlooked the dependence of leaks on pressure, modeling these flows as actual consumption instead. Recent research has introduced the Fixed And Variable Area Discharge (FAVAD) leakage simulation paradigm, which incorporates the elasticity of pipe walls. This paradigm enhances the accuracy of models in predicting leak locations and assessing the effects of pressure control efforts. The primary challenge now is to convince hydraulic modelers to adopt FAVAD and avoid the community’s previous reluctance to implement the rigid-wall emitter leakage paradigm. This article introduces two tools designed to facilitate the transition to FAVAD as it gets integrated into major simulation packages. The first tool is a set of guidelines for selecting parameter ranges for pipes based on size, material, age, and operating pressure. These guidelines are derived from fundamental research and are translated for broad-scale modeling applications. The second tool automatically dis-aggregates junction demands in a model or a sub-division of it into leaks and actual consumption. It does this based on estimates of total leakage percentage and the model’s level of skeletonization. In highly skeletonized models, leaks are located at junctions and are proportional to consumption. In all-pipe models, leaks occur at the pipes themselves. With the optional inclusion of asset deterioration scores, this tool provides a starting point for mitigating background leakage in existing networks.
