EPANet Software

Application for Modeling Drinking Water Distribution Systems

EPANET is a software application used throughout the world to model water distribution systems. It was developed as a tool for understanding the movement and fate of drinking water constituents within distribution systems, and can be used for many types of applications in distribution systems analysis. Today, engineers and consultants use EPANET to design and size new water infrastructure, retrofit existing aging infrastructure, optimize operations of tanks and pumps, reduce energy usage, investigate water quality problems, and prepare for emergencies. It can also be used to model contamination threats and evaluate resilience to security threats or natural disasters. The software is used extensively in Australia, South Africa for designing efficient Water Distribution Networks and Pressurized Irrigation systems to minimize waste in energy and the precious resource in  drought prone countries…WATER!

WATER -the most valuable resource known to man….without proper management we all perish!

Elliott Enterprises provide the Altus GNSS Positioning System to capture data and document existing and NEW Water Distribution Networks, after the Network has been surveyed in Carlson Survey or Civil the next step is to test the design and optimize the distribution of the resource.

We have experience and tools available transfer or convert CAD designs from Autodesk “DRAWING” format to import the design to EPANET. a software with dynamic modelling capabilities and water quality modelling ability absolutely FREE to everyone.

We offer training for Carlson Survey, EPANET and Carlson GIS and the integration of the data with GIS software. We recommend beginning the GIS journey by using QGIS – a Free GIS software package developed by the Open Source Software community.

Developed by EPA’s Water Supply and Water Resources Division, USA, EPANET is software that models water distribution piping systems. It is a Windows program that performs extended-period simulation of the hydraulic and water quality behavior within pressurized pipe networks.

System optimization

Pipe networks consist of pipes, nodes (pipe junctions), pumps, valves, and storage tanks or reservoirs. EPANET tracks the flow of water in each pipe, the pressure at each node, the height of the water in each tank, and the concentration of a chemical species throughout the network during a simulation period. Chemical species, water age, source, and tracing can be simulated

EPANET Distribution Network

Carlson Survey or Civil software are provided with the Altus GPS (GNSS) RTK kit  to survey the network. This can be done with almost zero error (Elevation). The  tools provided convert the network geometry to EPANET format for addition of pipe, junction and valve components.

A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet app provides the program to prepare and optimize time and demand on the network to assist time and flow model real time simulation.

EPANET provides an integrated computer environment for editing network input data, running hydraulic and water quality simulations, and viewing the results in a variety of formats. These include color-coded network maps, data tables, time series graphs, and contour plots.

CAPABILITIES

With EPANET, users can perform extended-period simulation of the hydraulic and water quality behavior within pressurized pipe networks, which consist of pipes, nodes (junctions), pumps, valves, storage tanks, and reservoirs. It can be used to track the flow of water in each pipe, the pressure at each node, the height of the water in each tank, a chemical concentration, the age of the water, and source tracing throughout the network during a simulation period.

EPANET’s user interface provides a visual network editor that simplifies the process of building pipe network models and editing their properties and data. Various data reporting and visualization tools are used to assist in interpreting the results of a network analysis, including color-coded network maps, data tables, energy usage, reaction, calibration, time series graphs, and profile and contour plots.

Hydraulic Modeling

Full-featured and accurate hydraulic modeling is a prerequisite for doing effective water quality modeling. EPANET contains a state-of-the-art hydraulic analysis engine that includes the following capabilities:

• Ability to use pressure dependent demands in hydraulic analyses.
• System operation based on both simple tank level or timer controls and on complex rule-based controls.
• No limit on the size of the network that can be analyzed.
• Computes friction headloss using the Hazen-Williams, Darcy-Weisbach, or Chezy-Manning formulas.
• Includes minor head losses for bends, fittings, etc.
• Models constant or variable speed pumps.
• Computes pumping energy and cost.
• Models various types of valves, including shutoff, check, pressure regulating, and flow control.
• Allows storage tanks to have any shape (i.e., diameter can vary with height).
• Considers multiple demand categories at nodes, each with its own pattern of time variation.
• Models pressure-dependent flow issuing from emitters (sprinkler heads).
• Provides robust results for hydraulic convergence and low/zero flow conditions.

Water Quality Modeling

In addition to hydraulic modeling, EPANET provides the following water quality modeling capabilities:

• Storage tanks as being either complete mix, plug flow, or two-compartment reactors.
• Movement of a non-reactive tracer material through the network over time.
• Movement and fate of a reactive material as it grows or decays with time.
• Age of water throughout a network.
• Percent of flow from a given node reaching all other nodes over time.
• Reactions in the bulk flow and at the pipe wall.
• Accounts for mass transfer limitations when modeling pipe wall reactions.
• Allows growth or decay reactions to proceed up to a limiting concentration.
• Employs global reaction rate coefficients that can be modified on a pipe-by-pipe basis.
• Allows wall reaction rate coefficients to be correlated to pipe roughness.
• Allows for time-varying concentration or mass inputs at any location in the network.

Water Security and Resilience Modeling

Extensions to EPANET are available that work with the existing software to simulate the interactions between multiple chemical and biological agents and their interactions with the bulk water and pipe walls in water distribution systems.

• EPANET-MSX (Multi-Species eXtension) enables EPANET to model complex reactions between multiple chemical and biological species in both the bulk flow and at the pipe wall. This capability has been included into both a stand-alone executable program as well as a toolkit library of functions that programmers can use to build customized applications. EPANET-MSX allows users the flexibility to model a wide-range of chemical reactions of interest, including, auto-decomposition of chloramines to ammonia, the formation of disinfection byproducts, biological regrowth, combined reaction rate constants in multi-source systems, and mass transfer limited oxidation-pipe wall adsorption reactions.
• EPANET-RTX (Real–Time eXtension) provides the methods and software tools by which operational data can be connected with a network infrastructure model, and the resulting network simulation model can be calibrated, verified, and continually tested for accuracy using operational data. EPANET-RTX is software for building real-time hydraulic and water quality models. EPANET-RTX brings real-time analytics to water distribution system modeling, planning, and operations. Analytics refer to the discovery and interpretation of patterns in data. EPANET-RTX software works by providing access accessing available utility data and effectively using it to run a hydraulic and water quality model.

APPLICATIONS

EPANET helps water utilities maintain and improve the quality of water delivered to consumers. It can be used for the following:

• Design sampling programs
• Study disinfectant loss and byproduct formations
• Conduct consumer exposure assessments
• Evaluate alternative strategies for improving water quality
• Modify pumping and tank filling/emptying schedules to reduce water age
• Use booster disinfection stations at key locations to maintain target residuals
• Plan and improve a system’s hydraulic performance
• Assist with pipe, pump, and valve placement and sizing
• Energy minimization
• Fire flow analysis
• Vulnerability studies

EPANET can also be used to plan and improve a system’s hydraulic performance. The software can assist with pipe, pump, and valve placement and sizing; energy minimization; fire flow analysis; vulnerability studies; and operator training.

To whet your appetite before starting your official model or network we recommend watching the following 9 short videos. These Videos are based on the steps described in the EPANET Manual Click here to Start watching! 

We recommend completing the EPANET Tutorial to familiarize the user with the software and processes before getting serious with your water distribution model.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: EPANET is the core “hydraulics engine” used by all software vendors offering Water Distribution Network Modelling (WaterGEMS, Wadiso etc.) These software packages provide additional CAD tools to make the processes more “user friendly”, however the operations and results are the same at NO cost. The EPANET software engine is also available as an plugin for QGIS and other GIS software. We recommend taking the time to evaluate the product as provided below. This software is used extensively in the design of irrigation pressure systems across the world also.

WARNING: The EPANET Tutorial is performed in Imperial Units….RESET “Properties” to Metric on completion of the tutorial; before working with your design in the Philippines.

1. EPANET Installation
2. EPANET Manual
3. EPANET Tutorial
4. DXF to EPANET Converter
5. DXF to EPANET Manual
6. EPANET Excel Add-In 
7. EPANET Excel Add-In Manual

We recommend completing the EPANET Tutorial to familiarize the user with the software and processes before getting serious with your water distribution model.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: EPANET is the core “hydraulics engine” used by all software vendors offering Water Distribution Network Modelling (WaterGEMS, Wadiso etc.) These software packages provide additional CAD tools to make the processes more “user friendly”, however the operations and results are the same at NO cost. The EPANET software engine is also available as an plugin for QGIS – QEPANET. We recommend taking the time to evaluate the product as provided below. This software is used extensively in the design of irrigation pressure systems across the world also.

 

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