EPANET modeling of an urban groundwater field

Iulian Iancu,Andrei-Mugur Georgescu,Sanda-Carmen Georgescu,Alexandru-Nicolae Dimache,M.C Balan,F Bode,I Nastase,C Georgescu,M Sandu,A Georgescu,C Croitoru,A Dogeanu

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/20198506003

Abstract

The paper presents an EPANET model of a groundwater well field. The method used in the simulations to model the variation of the hydrodynamic levels in wells as a function of the pumped flow rate is discussed, and a comparison to previous simulations that used fixed hydrodynamic levels in the wells is performed. The case study points to a groundwater well field in Romania. The results show that the new method although requiring a more complex EPANET model, provides a solution that is closer to the actual variation of water levels in wells.

Highlights

Due to climate change and increased development of urban areas, water resources management is gaining nowadays more attention from the water companies
The variation of level in an unconfined aquifer due to flow extraction at a well is presented in figure 1, where H represents the hydrostatic level, h represents the hydrodynamic level, r is the radius of the well, R is the radius of the cone of depression and Q is the flow rate extracted from the well
The pipes are colored in function of the flow rate, while the nodes are colored upon the total head

Summary

Introduction

Due to climate change and increased development of urban areas, water resources management (especially drinkable water resources) is gaining nowadays more attention from the water companies. In order to solve the complex problems of water supply sources and water distribution networks computer modeling of these systems has gained momentum in the last years. If the extracted flow rate is bigger than the optimum flow rate, a rapid clogging of the well occurs, rendering it unusable This is an controllable problem for a single well, but becomes more complex for a well field where all the extraction pipes and pumps are connected in a water system. The operation of a well field has to be realized sometimes at partial loads either due to low water consumption, or due to revisions or damaged equipment replacement, meaning that some of the pumps are off in the system In this case, at least intuitively, it is obvious that all duty points of the pumps in operation migrate to the right, at higher flow rates that can exceed the optimal flow rate of the wells. A methodology for setting up such a model in EPANET will be derived in this paper

Methods

Results

Conclusion