Calculation of water supply networks

The main requirement for a pipeline or piping system is operational safety. The required throughput rate must be achieved, this requires sufficient cross-section and sufficient feed power (pumps, elevated tanks, etc.) or energy level at the beginning of the line.

All loads must be able to be absorbed, material strength and wall thickness must be sufficient to withstand the internal pressure under stationary and transient conditions (pressure surges) such as axial stresses due to longitudinal forces (e.g. deflecting forces at bends, liquid friction).

A whole series of load cases have to be defined by the planning engineer and many worst-case scenarios have to be run through. The maximum possible withdrawal of extinguishing water from the node is just as interesting as the effects of a burst pipe, the choice of suitable pumps or the fill level of the elevated tank (elevated tank management). Time-dependent feed-in and consumption profiles should be taken into account in the grid analysis. Operational safety (e.g. sufficient supply pressure) must be the objective. Perhaps network optimization (dimensioning) can also help.

The evaluation of the calculation results should be graphic-based. This is hardly feasible in the case of larger networks. Also of interest in this context is the location of the sewer network, for example.

Our software recommendation

The programs GraPS (graphic system for sewer and water supply networks) and CROSS (hydraulic calculation of water supply networks) cover the topics discussed above.