INTERACTIVE HYDRAULIC MODELING – HOW TO PUT YOUR HYDRAULIC PROFILE TO WORK

Hydraulics play an important role in the day-to-day operation of a treatment plant. Plant staff routinely need to make operational decisions that may impact plant hydraulics. Historically, there have been few tools available to assist them in this effort. As a part of its Peak Flow Management Plan, Orange County Sanitation District utilizes an interactive hydraulic model to analyze the impact of operational changes on plant hydraulics for their two wastewater treatment plants. The two treatment plants were designed with a high level of hydraulic flexibility with a system of piping and diversion structures that offers plant staff several options for routing flows within the plants. With flexibility however, often comes added complexity. The plant staff needed an operational tool to allow them to quickly and easily evaluate various flow routing alternatives and plan for different operational scenarios. With the interactive hydraulic model, plant staff are able to analyze impacts of operational changes, such as wet weather operations and taking process units out of service (e.g. for scheduled maintenance or construction activities), at a desktop level, before making changes to actual plant operation.The hydraulic models for both treatment plants and the interconnecting interplant piping, were developed using a modeling tool designed specifically for treatment plant hydraulics. The modeling tool includes the high level of detail and customization capabilities that were essential to address the hydraulic complexity of the plants. This model integrates a sophisticated graphical user interface with a detailed computational module that includes all the typical hydraulic elements found in treatment plants including process units, pipelines, open channels, gates, weirs and valves. This paper discusses the development and use of this interactive hydraulic model.