International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics
Volume 119 No. 17 2018, 2849-2853
ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)
url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/
Special Issue
http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/
An Overview of water distribution network design
Manoj Nallanathel [ 1 ], B. Ramesh [ 2 ], A P Santhosh [ 3 ]
Assistant Professor [ 1 ], Professor [ 2 ], Bachelor of Engineering [ 3 ]
Department of Civil Engineering, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical
Sciences, Chennai - 602105
jonamcivil@gmail.com [ 1 ], ramesh.bhaskar@gmail.com [ 2 ], sandy.926464@gmail.com [ 3 ]
Abstract:
Water distribution network(WDN) is combination of hydraulic components which transports the water from water
resources to the consumers in time. Resources such as ground water, lake, river, etc. Mode of transportation are open channel,
closed conduit, water stored in lorry tanks are used based on the conditions. Then the transported water should be stored,
storages can be concrete tank, over tank in the domestic water supply. Good WDN should supply the water at enough pressure
to the consumer’s tap which should be good in quality and should be easy to operate and maintain. When we prefer overhead
tank the WDN system will be mostly gravity system only. Because due to elevation of tank, the pressure at node is quite
reasonable which satisfies the consumers need. This total WDN can be designed and run the hydraulic analysis in the
EPANET software. This paper gives a brief explanation of EPANET software which is useful to design water distribution
network (WDN).
Keywords: Water distribution network (WDN), pressure, Overhead tank, discharge, loop ends.
EPANET allows to modify tank filling and emptying timings
1.INDRODUCTION
EPANET is software which is used to design the
water distribution piping systems. EPANET performs
to reduce the age of water. It tracks the amount of flow of
water from a given node to all other nodes in the WDN.
extended period simulation of the water movement and
quality behavior within pressurized pipe networks. Pipe
networks which consist of pipes, nodes, pumps, valves, and
storage tanks or reservoirs. EPANET allows the user to check
the flow of water in each pipe, the pressure at each node, the
height of the water in each tank in the entire network.
EPANET's Windows user interface provides a visual
network editor that simplifies the process of building piping
network models and editing their properties and data.
EPANET allows the user to check the quality of the water
throughout the network. EPANET can give an idea to the
engineer after designing such as idea about diameter of pipe,
soil exploration, which type of pipe material should be used,
how much discharge should be maintained and so on.
Courtesy : Google image
while designing the network the junctions are interlinked with
pipes. The pressure at the junctions majorly depends upon
elevation, base demand and demand pattern. Demand pattern
is a multiplier of the base demand at particular junction at
certain hour of a day. Demand pattern represents the peak and
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International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics
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non peak hour of the day. Here some of advantages of
EPANET are mentioned below:

All calculations are done by itself and so quick
while calculating.

Changes can be done easily.

Software itself warns about any error while
simulation.

Output and results can be summarized in tables
with graphics.
2.
fig no: 2. Water network of kimilili region
LITERATURE REVIEW
[1] R Sathyanathan, 2016 done a project based on
WDN throughout the SRM university using EPANET
software. In the project they explain about the pressure at
junctions in peak and non-peak hours and gives the clarity
about the loop ends in the campus. The diameter of pipe
throughout the network is 250 mm. The source of water is lake
which is located inside the campus, by using pumps the water
is extracted and distributed in the campus. After analyzing the
results came to know the pressure is enough to serve the
[4] Shivalingaswami.S. Halagalimath, 2016 designs a
WDN for the Bagalkot city, Karnataka. The Water
distribution network consists of one tank, 120 junctions, 186
pipes and only one tank which has to be serve water for
13104 people in the study region. After networking and
editing the properties of pipe, nodes parameters such as
length, diameter, elevation and basic demand and run the
analysis,
checked
the results.
The
study includes
determination of quantity of water used, head losses in
various pipelines and the pressure head at the nodes. In the
consumers in the campus.
[2] Mohammed N. Almasri PhD, 2008 done a journal
paper on EPANET software, which gives detailed explanation
of the software, and also did a small WDN for the simulation.
The author also explains about the branched networks, loop
ends, EPANET elements like pipes, valves, junctions,
reservoirs, pumps, tanks etc.,
results, it was found that the resulting pressure and velocity
satisfies enough to provide the water to the consumers in the
study region.
[5] Kakadiya Shital, 2016 done a case study on Punagam
area of Surat city which has the area of 600.83 Ha and
population of 2,22,252. In the project the authors done an
[3] Christopher Bwire, 2015 investigates the activities of
Kimilili Water Supply network in Bungoma County in the
terms of demands, variation in pressure from the treatment
plant to consumers using EPANET. Later getting the results
from the simulation, 80% of nodes receives the pressure of
more 16m which is sufficient to fill the tanks. The minimum
pressure maintained is 10m. Pressure reducing valves also
provided in the network to avoid water hammer in the taps.
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experiment on the existing water network and design the
same existing water network in the EPANET software and
check the results obtained from software and compare it to
the manual calculations. The network completely divided
into two zones which is totally consists of 109 junctions, 144
pipes. At the end of analysis the pressure and velocity at the
junctions is quite enough to provide the water to the
customers.
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics
[6] Arunkumar M., 2011 The study examined the
water demand analysis of Public Water Supply in
Municipalities using EPANET 2.0 software with the aim of
providing effective planning, development and operation of
water supply and distribution networks which is one of the
most essential components of urban infrastructure. The
network is used as intermittent water supply network to the
people in Avadi, Chennai. Where the water is supplied in a
particular number of hours such as 4 or pressure or not. But
CPHEEO states that the minimum pressure is 12m, which is
sufficient to serve the end users also in this region.
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consumers. After collecting data of distribution networks of
Limbayat zone pressure, they compute the flow velocity in
each and every pipe using EPANET and After obtaining the
results, they compared actual and computed results.
[8]. Rasooli Ahmadullah 2016, examined the
Kabul city water distribution network and also explained
about the loop end problems in WDN. To get the map of
WDN they used ArcGIS and imported the map to EPANET
in the form of. inp form and starts designing and simulating
the network and solves the problem due to the loop ends. In
this project the author picks the Hardy cross method to
[7] Darshan Mehta, studied about the water
scarcity problem in the Limbayat zone, which is located in
Surat city. The main reason of the scarcity is pressure
fluctuation and may be some leakages in the network. So by
using hydraulic simulation software he studied the Limbayat
zone water supply system in order to improve the
analysis the network. Hardy cross method gives more
precision that the any other method for solving. This method
can be done for the loop Water distribution networks also.
The advantage of this method is simple math and self
correction. He also recommended the engineers to use Hardy
cross method who works in the water networking field.
performance and quality of water which is supplied to the
3. CONCLUSION
From the above papers we came to know about the
the software and simulation will be successful and errors can
basic knowledge of how to use EPANET software and how
be avoided as much as possible. Loop ends also want to kept
it works. Almost all the authors who worked on this software
in mind while designing the network. According to the
gives the output as comparison between already existing
location of loop ends only the network should be
WDN and virtual WDN. If we are careful at giving the input
manipulated. Here I conclude some of the authors and their
data i.e. diameter, length, elevation, demand to the WDN in
respective works in this field are mentioned below table.
TABLE NO: 1 CONCLUSION AND REMARKS
Sl no
Author and year of
Description
Remarks
Worked on the WDN in SRM university
Analyzed the WDN in the SRM campus and
Chennai
concluded that resulted pressure and velocity is
publication
1
R. Sathyanathan (2016)
enough to serve the consumers.
2
Christopher Bwire (2015)
Investigated the kimilili water water supply
Concluded that the minimum pressure head is 10m
system in Bungoma.
which is enough pressure to serve the customers.
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International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics
3
4
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Rasooli Ahmadullah
Studied already existing water network in
Explained mainly about loop ends and also Hardy
(2016)
Kabul city
cross method, which is useful to analyze the WDN.
Arun kumar M (2011)
Examined the municipal water supply in
Analyzed the intermittent water supply and also
Avadi, Chennai
design period of the network. The minimum
pressure is 12m which satisfies the dead end users
also.
Kakadiya Shital (2016)
5
Checked the activity of WDN of Punagam
Analyzed the WDN and it was founded that
area of Surat city.
velocity and pressure at all the nodes is adequate
enough to provide water to customers.
4. REFERENCES
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by using EPANET: A Case Study of Surat City” Global
Distribution Network Design for SRM University using
Research and Development Journal for Engineering, Recent
EPANET”Asian Journal of Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2321 –
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089) Volume 04 – Issue 03, June 2016.
March 2016.
2. Mohammad N. Almasri PhD, “Simulation of Water
6. Arunkumar M, NethajiMariappan V.E., “WATER
Distribution Networks the Use of EPANET” An-Najah
DEMAND
National University.
SUPPLY USING EPANET SOFTWARE” International
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