Possibilities of sewer model simplifications

Abstract

With increased computer performance and data-processing functionalities, there has been a tendency in the last few years to apply detailed hydrodynamic sewer modelling for long-term simulations, with long time series of rainfall. Although this is now fairly realistic for small networks, there is still a clear limit as to what can be done in the case of running bigger models for a long time, which need a lot more computational effort. Therefore, the idea has grown to investigate the possibilities of hybrid sewer modelling, a combination of conceptual and mechanistic modelling approaches to combine the advantages of both models, the speed of conceptual models and the accuracy of mechanistic models. Suggestions for hybrid model simplifications are presented in this paper within their application for two case studies.

Keywords:

• conceptual model
• detailed hydrodynamic model
• hybrid sewer modelling
• InfoWorks™

Acknowledgements

The results presented in the first part of the Herent case study were processed within the scope of a diploma thesis on the topic ‘Investigations of the possibilities of hybrid sewer modelling’, supervised by Aquafin NV in Belgium and the Technische Universität Dresden in Germany. Thanks to Greet de Gueldre and Chris Thoeye for giving AF the opportunity to work further on the subject and to finally write this paper. The Berlin case study was conducted at the Berliner Wasserbetriebe in collaboration with the KWB (KompetenzZentrum Wasser Berlin gGmbH) within the EVA study (Umsetzung eines Entscheidungshilfesystems zur Verbundsteuerung von Abwasserpumpwerken und Analyse weitergehender Steuerungsvarianten - Global Control of Sewage Pump Stations). This study was financed by Berliner Wasserbetriebe and Veolia Water.

Notes

1. Extract from the historic time series of Ukkel/Uccle, recorded by the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (KMI / IRM).