Sustainable Design and Comparative Study of Water Distribution Network using Mixed Techniques and Simulation in a High-Rise Building

Abstract

This study focuses on the design and analysis of awater distribution system for a 14th story residential high-rise project. CAD was used to build a 2D and 3D water pipe network, which were sized using Hazen Williams' chart and probability equation. Fluid flow velocities, flow rates, and pressures at various nodes in the building were calculated theoretically using the pipe sizes, and further modeled and simulated using the PIPESIM program to obtain flow velocities, flow rates, and pressures. The simulated pressures were slightly higher than the calculated pressure levels as the building's elevation was increased. Similarly, the simulated and computed pressures and velocities were proportional to the heights. From the fourth story to the lowest floor, high flow speeds were detected, which were much greater than the recommended flow velocity of 1.5ms <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−1</sup> . On some of the floors, pressure-reducing valves were introduced to reduce flow velocity to 1.5 ms <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−1</sup> or less while maintaining a safe operating pressure of 3.5 bar, effectively prolonging the pipe's service life to 100 years. Furthermore, using ABAQUS FE software to model pipe networks leading to sanitary appliances, a parametric analysis of Fluid-Structure Interaction, FSI Analysis in the water piping system were done to measure turbulence and pressures caused under no-slip velocity conditions. Based on the findings, it was proposed that robust software be used to model and simulate water piping designs, in addition to the experimentally acquired values with some validations, because it provides an accurate and safe design for the water distribution network.