WUDESIM: a toolkit for simulating water quality in the dead-end branches of drinking water distribution networks

ABSTRACT

This work introduces WUDESIM, an open-source C/C++ toolkit for modeling water quality in the dead-end branches of drinking water distribution networks. WUDESIM is linked to the programmers’ toolkit of EPANET, a widely-used public-domain water network analysis model. In place of the advection-based water quality module in EPANET, WUDESIM allows the users to simulate water quality in the pipes of dead-end branches with dispersion as a constituent transport mechanism. In addition, WUDESIM corrects for the simulation errors that arise from the spatial aggregation of water demands due to network skeletonization, and enables the users to use stochastically-generated water demands at fine time-scales. The software comprises two components: a Windows® executable file and a C/C++ dynamic link library (DLL) toolkit. Examples of how the users can employ the different toolkit functions to run water quality analysis and obtain simulation results are provided. WUDESIM is available as a public-domain software.

KEYWORDS:

• Water distribution networks
• water quality modeling
• dead end branches
• advection-dispersion
• numerical methods

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the University of Texas at Austin Startup Grant and by Cooperative Agreement No. 83595001 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to The University of Texas at Austin. This work has not been formally reviewed by EPA. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Agency. EPA does not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Software availability

Name of Software: WUDESIM

License: Public-Domain

Developer: Ahmed A. Abokifa

Contact e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

Software required: EPANET2 Programmer’s Toolkit

Available from: GitHub (https://github.com/aabokifa/WUDESIM)

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the United States Environmental Protection Agency [83595001]; The University of Texas at Austin [Startup Grant].