Water networks

Overview

Water networks solves a pressure network of pipes, junctions, reservoirs, tanks, pumps and pressure reducing valves on the CivilCraft plan. It finds the heads, flows and pressures, draws the pressures on the plan, and can run a fire flow check at a junction and an extended-period run over a demand pattern. It is a calculation aid for water supply design. The solver covers pressure mains; gravity sewer and storm networks are not solved here.

Who it’s for

• Water engineers who check pressures and flows in a distribution network before a design is issued.
• Civil designers who lay out mains on the site plan and want the pressures and pipe sizes to match.
• Fire protection engineers who need a fire flow check at a node of the network.

What you can do

• Put junctions, reservoirs, tanks, pipes, pumps and pressure reducing valves on the plan with the Water mains tools (Surface, More, Water mains).
• Solve the network for heads, flows and pressures, with friction loss by Hazen-Williams and minor losses, and draw the pressures on the plan.
• Run a fire flow at a junction and check the pressure that is left for the rest of the network.
• Run an extended-period simulation over a demand pattern, with pumps and valves that switch by time step.
• Read and write network text in EPANET format.
• Open the Properties of a node or a link to change it. Each change is one undo step.

Methods and standards

The global gradient method (Todini and Pilati, 1988), with Hazen-Williams head loss and the minor-loss form K times v squared over 2g. Pump curves take one or three points, and a pressure reducing valve holds its set pressure. The solver is the add-on's own code, written from the published method, with no third-party solver code in it.

Data and sources

The network is yours: pipe lengths, diameters, roughness C, demands and reservoir levels are typed in or come from the project. Nothing ships as reference data.

Verification

Tested by bin/test-civilcraft-water.mjs (61 checks). Its known answers were worked by hand or by an independent bisection, not by the code under test. Not yet checked against a reference network from a water design package or against a measured system.

Limits

A calculation aid: an engineer checks every result. Gravity sewer and storm networks are not solved here; the sanitary design flow step is a separate part of CivilCraft's sewer tools. The results cover heads, flows and pressures. This listing does not claim water quality.

Files and formats

The network is saved with the CivilCraft project. Reads and writes EPANET-format network text.

Get started

1. Open CivilCraft over a site, then Surface, More, Water mains.
2. Place a reservoir, junctions and pipes on the plan, then type the demands and the reservoir level.
3. Solve the network, read the pressures on the plan, then run a fire flow at a junction.

Languages

No languages are listed for this add-on yet. Its maker may add some.

Works in

Comes with

Adding it brings these too. Engines are shared: each downloads once for every add-on that uses it.

Needed by: Agricultural and irrigation engineering, Civil and site engineering, Water resources and hydrology.

Versions

Licence and maker

CadCraft (CadCraft, first-party). Licence: Apache-2.0. Dependencies carry their own licences, listed on their pages.