Beyond trial and error: improving the management of intermittently-operated water distribution networks

超越反复试验：改善间歇性运行的供水网络的管理

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-04969
• 负责人: Taylor, David
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=681379
• 关键词: Beyond; trial; error; improving; management

Safe tap water is easily taken for granted. Yet Flint, Michigan and Walkerton, Ontario point to the devastating consequences of unsafe and unreliable piped water. The long-term vision of the proposed research program is to improve piped water's safety, reliability, and equity by creating better ways of managing piped water networks. *** The research will begin by focusing on the least reliable water networks: networks that are not always filled with pressurized water. In India, for example, utilities supply water for an average of only four hours per day! Globally, such intermittent water supplies serve one billion people (21% of piped water users) and cause 17 million infections annually.*** Piped water networks behave differently when they operate intermittently. Intermittent operations cause pipes to drain and refill frequently and intermittent operations prevent some customers from getting enough water. These differences make managing intermittent water supplies difficult and limit the usefulness of tools designed for managing continuously-operated networks. Accordingly, most utilities manage intermittent water supplies through trial and error. But the water supplies of one billion people should not be managed by trial and error. Three short-term objectives are, therefore, proposed:*** First, increase the percent of water utilities that use models (instead of trial and error) to manage intermittent systems. Existing academic models of intermittent water supplies have the potential to help manage systems, yet are unused by utilities. The proposed work will help utilities choose and use the most appropriate model for their network.*** Second, enable utilities to intermittently supply customers with similar volumes of water. Determining the volume of water that a customer gets in an intermittent system with academic models requires expensive-to-gather details about each pipe in that system. Instead, this work will create a simpler model of how equitably water is distributed within an intermittent system. The simpler model will not require detailed pipe information and will be cheaper for utilities to use. *** Third, reduce the burst pipes and wasted energy caused by air trapped in water networks. Filling water pipes can trap pockets of air, which can cause pressure spikes and block the flow of water in continuously- and intermittently-operated networks. Existing models of air in water pipes only work for simple networks. This work will create the first model of trapped air in a utility-sized network. *** Impact: This research will improve our understanding of how air and water flow through pipes and allow water utilities to increase their efficiency and reliability. One billion people stand to benefit from the increased reliability of intermittent water supplies. Moreover, Canada's water sector will benefit from better ways of managing trapped air and from HQP with the practical and theoretical skills needed to keep our piped water safe and reliable.

安全的自来水很容易被视为理所当然。然而，密歇根州的弗林特和安大略省的沃克顿指出了不安全和不可靠的自来水的破坏性后果。拟议的研究计划的长期愿景是通过创建更好的管理自来水网络的方法来提高自来水的安全性，可靠性和公平性。* 研究将开始关注最不可靠的供水网络：不总是充满加压水的网络。例如，在印度，公用事业公司平均每天只供水4小时！在全球范围内，这种间歇性供水服务于10亿人（占自来水用户的21%），每年造成1700万人感染。管道供水网络在间歇运行时表现不同。间歇性操作会导致管道频繁排水和重新填充，间歇性操作会阻止一些客户获得足够的水。这些差异使得管理间歇性供水变得困难，并限制了为管理连续运行的网络而设计的工具的实用性。因此，大多数公用事业公司通过试验和错误来管理间歇性供水。但是，10亿人的供水不应该通过试错来管理。因此，提出了三个短期目标：* 首先，增加使用模型（而不是试错法）管理间歇性系统的供水公司的百分比。现有的间歇性供水的学术模型有可能帮助管理系统，但未被公用事业使用。建议的工作将帮助公用事业公司选择和使用最适合其网络的模型。第二，使公用事业公司能够间歇性地向客户提供类似数量的水。使用学术模型确定客户在间歇性系统中获得的水量需要花费大量资金来收集该系统中每条管道的详细信息。相反，这项工作将创建一个更简单的模型，说明如何在间歇性系统中公平地分配水。更简单的模型将不需要详细的管道信息，并将更便宜的公用事业使用。 * 第三，减少水管爆裂和水网络中滞留空气造成的能源浪费。填充水管可能会捕获气穴，这可能会导致压力峰值，并阻止连续和不连续运行的网络中的水流。现有的水管中空气的模型只适用于简单的网络。这项工作将在公用事业规模的网络中创建第一个被困空气模型。 * 影响：这项研究将提高我们对空气和水如何在管道中流动的理解，并使供水设施提高效率和可靠性。10亿人将受益于间歇性供水可靠性的提高。此外，加拿大的水部门将受益于更好的方法来管理被困的空气，并从HQP的实际和理论技能，需要保持我们的管道水安全和可靠。