As described in the previous article, Urbano Hydra connects AutoCAD drawing (detailed water distribution network design) with EPANET hydraulic calculation. In Urbano Hydra it is possible to create various water demand scenarios and choose which scenario will be relevant for the calculation. Unlike EPANET, in Urbano Hydra you can have various parallel water demand scenarios (alternatives) and those scenarios can be simultaneously previewed and compared – e.g. summer and winter period scenario, scenario with and without firefighting demand, etc.
Scenarios can provide more efficient and systematic analysis of design and operating alternatives. They can be used to examine the impacts of different demand conditions, search for optimal parameters, and evaluate changes in operating policies.
In Urbano Hydra, you can input various types of water demands by using various methods (domestic water demand, industrial and commercial water demand, demand for public uses, firefighting demand, water losses, etc.). And for each type of water demand, you can create any number of water demand configurations. For example, local residents and tourists for domestic water demands, any number of point demands (hotels, factories, etc.) and various alternatives for firefighting demands. You can set firefighting demands at different points in the network and analyze all the hydraulic values (velocities, headlosses, pressures, etc.) in cases of differently allocated fires or different number of simultaneous fires on selected locations.
After creating various configurations for different types of water demands, you can create scenarios. You can create any number of scenarios, and in each scenario define any combination of previously defined water demand configurations. You can select which of the previously defined water demand configurations will be taken into account for each scenario.
After creating different scenarios, it is possible to preview, analyze and compare the results of parallel hydraulic calculations in special preview tables. You can select which scenarios you want to compare, and see the results in different colors. You can analyze values in the table, scenario by scenario or data by data. By using various selection options, you can preview, analyze and compare calculation results in specific parts of the network.
This way, you can determine the most unfavorable scenario for the designed network, check whether the network satisfies and re-size the network if necessary according to that scenario by using genetic algorithm functionality described in the previous article.
After analysis, you can save the results according to any scenario. You can select any of the previously created water demand scenarios or sum of all defined demands. After saving, program automatically writes all the values in the drawing, re-draws piezometric lines in profiles and updates labels in plan. See more in the video below:
In EPANET, a project scenario consists of a subset of the data that characterizes the conditions under which a pipe network is being analyzed. A scenario can consist of demands at all nodes, diameters for all pipes and roughness coefficients for all pipes. EPANET can compile a scenario based on some or all of the data categories, save the scenario to file, and read the scenario back in at a later time.
As already described, in Urbano Hydra you can simultaneously have multiple parallel scenarios. For now, only demand scenarios, but in the next release we plan to add all of the data categories that EPANET has plus topology alternatives such as node and link types (reservoir, tank, emitter, valve, pump and all of their settings and parameters), pipe statuses (open/close pipe), etc. This feature is currently in development and will be available in Urbano 10.
Urbano Hydra works on Autodesk AutoCAD, Map3D and Civil3D 2013-2018.
To watch more videos about Urbano Hydra please go here.
To watch more videos about Urbano software please go to our official YouTube channel.
