St. Venant Terms in SWMM 5
St. Venant Terms in SWMM 5 and how they change for Force Mainsby dickinsonre |
SWMM5, SWMM6, XPSWMM, InfoSWMM, InfoSewer, OpenSWMM, and ICM — engine internals, error messages, calibration, and hard-won field wisdom from Robert Dickinson.
St. Venant Terms in SWMM 5 and how they change for Force Mainsby dickinsonre |
Note: Orifice and Weir Flow Computations
The orifice flow calculation proceeds as follows:
1. Initially and whenever the setting (i.e., the fraction opened) changes, flow coefficients for both orifice and weir behavior are computed as follows:
a. For side orifices:
Define Hcrit = h/2 where h is the opening height.
b. For bottom orifices:
i. For a circular orifice, compute area over length (i.e., circumference) as AL = h /4.
ii. For a rectangular orifice compute AL = h*w/(2*(h+w)) where w is the opening width.
iii. Compute Hcrit = Cd*AL/0.414 where Cd is the orifice discharge coefficient.
At step 1b, the critical head for the bottom orifice, where orifice flow turns into weir flow, is found by equating the result of the orifice equation to that of the weir equation
Cd*Area*sqrt(2g)*sqrt(Hcrit) = Cw*Length*sqrt(Hcrit)*Hcrit or
Hcrit = (Cd * Area) / (Cw/sqrt(2g) * Length) The value of Cw/sqrt(2g) for a sharp crested weir is 0.414.
c. Compute the flow coefficients (where A is the area of the opening):
Corif = A*sqrt(2g)*Cd
Cweir = A*sqrt(2g)*Cd*sqrt(Hcrit)
2. During flow routing, compute the degree of inlet submergence (f) and head (H) at the current time step:
a. Define:
H1 = upstream head (from node with higher head),
H2 = downstream head (from node with lower head) ,
Hcrest = elevation of bottom of opening,
Hcrown = elevation of top of opening,
Hmidpt = elevation of midpoint of opening
b. For side orifices:
f = min{1.0, (H1 - Hcrest) / (Hcrown - Hcrest)}
if f < 1.0 then H = H1 - Hcrest,
else if H2 < Hmidpt then H = H1 - Hmidpt
else H = H1 - H2
c. For bottom orifices:
if H2 > Hcrest then H = H1 - H2
else H = H1 - Hcrest
f = min{1.0, H/Hcrit}
3. Compute the flow through the orifice (Q):
if f < 1.0 then Q = Cweir*f^1.5
else Q = Corif*sqrt(H)
4: Villemonte correction
If f < 1.0 and H2 > Hcrest then:
r = (H2 - Hcrest) / (H1 - Hcrest)
Q = Q * (1 - r^1.5)^0.385
Weir Flow Computations
1. Weir head calculations
h1 = Upstream Node Depth + Upstream Invert Elevation
h2 = Downstream Node Depth + Downstream Invert Elevation
If h2 is greater than h1 then the flow is reversed and h2 = h1 and h1 = h2
Weir Crest = Upstream Node Invert Elevation + Weir Offset Depth
Head = h1 – Weir Crest
2. Center Weir flow for Transverse Weirs
Q = Cw * Weir Length * Head^3/2
3. Center Weir flow for Side Flow Weirs
Weir behaves as a transverse weir under reverse flow
Q = Cw * Weir Length * Head^3/2
And under normal flow
Q = Cw * Weir Length * Head^5/3
4. Center Weir flow for V Notch Weirs
Q = Cw * Weir Slope * Head^5/2
Link Area Types in SWMM 5, InfoSWMM and H2OMap SWMMby dickinsonre |
Class
|
Description
|
Link Area Assignment
|
0 Dry conduit
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1/2 Upstream and 1/2 Downstream Node
| |
1 Upstream end is dry
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1/2 Downstream Node
| |
2 Downstream end is dry
|
1/2 Upstream Node
| |
3 Sub-critical flow
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1/2 Upstream and 1/2 Downstream Node
| |
4 Super-critical flow
|
1/2 Upstream and 1/2 Downstream Node
| |
5 Free-fall at upstream end
|
1/2 Downstream Node
| |
6 Free-fall at downstream end
|
1/2 Upstream Node
| |
| Class | Description | Link Area Assignment |
| 0 Dry conduit | 1/2 Upstream and 1/2 Downstream Node | |
| 1 Upstream end is dry | 1/2 Downstream Node | |
| 2 Downstream end is dry | 1/2 Upstream Node | |
| 3 Sub-critical flow | 1/2 Upstream and 1/2 Downstream Node | |
| 4 Super-critical flow | 1/2 Upstream and 1/2 Downstream Node | |
| 5 Free-fall at upstream end | 1/2 Downstream Node | |
| 6 Free-fall at downstream end | 1/2 Upstream Node | |
Note: Orifice Critical Depth
The Critical height is the opening where weir flow turns into orifice flow. It equals (Co/Cw)*(Area/Length) where Co is the orifice coeff., Cw is the weir coeff/sqrt(2g), Area is the area of the opening, and Length = circumference of the opening. For a basic sharp crested weir, Cw = 0.414. All of the units are based on the internal SWMM 5 units of American Standard.
For a circular orifice the Critical
Critical Height = Orifice Discharge Coefficient / 0.414 * Orifice Opening / 4
For a rectangular orifice the Critic
Critical Height = Orifice Discharge Coefficient / 0.414 * (Orifice Opening*Width) / (2.0*(Orifice Opening+Width))
The Orifice Critical Depth
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| Possible Link Graph and Computational Variables |
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| The 4 Areas of a Link in SWMM 5 - Rising Limb |
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| The 4 Areas of a Link in SWMM 5 - Rising Limb and Falling Limb |

Note: One method would be to add a duplicate Wet Well/Pump/Force Main set of links to pass the flow from the upstream Force Main to the two downstream Force Mains (FM). The pump should be fixed capacity to handle all of the split GM flows. In this particular example the flows are split 50/50 to links 25 and 35 after leaving the loading manhole 24.
Note: A pump is modeled in InfoSWMM somewhat akin to InfoSewer. You have a Wetwell connected to a Pump which in turn is connected to a Force Main. You can decide wheter a pipe is a Force Main or a Gravity Main by using the Atribute Browser and selecting Yes for Force Main and entering a FM Roughness.
You can also use the PickAx tool in the Attibrute Browser to convert the node from a Manhole to a WetWell / Storage node.
Note: The wet hydrology time step and the report time step should be adjusted together to generate the smoothest RDII flow at your nodes. The three images show below show;
1. If you hydrology time step equals your rainfall time step then the RDII flow will have a step function appearance or your flows in this case will be constant for one hour or the rainfall interval,
2. If you choose a smaller hydrology time step then the flows will be smoother (2nd image), but
3. If the report time step is much less than the hydrology time step then the flows will still be stepwise linear for the hydrology time step size.
When picking a hydrology time step for continuous simulation you should probably pick a value of about 5 minutes so that the generated flows are smooth but not so small that a lot of time is used in the RDIi convolution process to generate the 3 units hydrographs for RDII.
The minimum time step is the smallest time step used during the simulation.The average time step is the mean time step used during the simulation.The maximum time step is the maximum time used during the simulation.The percent in steady state is the percent of the total simulation time spent in steady state during the simulation.The average iterations per time step is the total number of iterations during the simulation divided by the total number of time steps or step count in this table. This will range between 2 and 4 iterations as SWMM 5.0.018 has a minimum of 2 and and a maximum of 4 iterations.The Step count is the total number of time steps during the simulation.The percent of bypassed links are the link flows that are NOT computed between time step iteration 2 and 4 because both the upstream and downstream node depths are converged in the current time step.The percent of bypassed nodes are those nodes that have been converged between time step iteration 2 and 4. The node depth is still calculated, however, between iterations 2 and 4 as long as the whole time step is not considered converged.