Simulating equity in intermittent water supply using pressure sustaining valve in EPANET 2.2

ABSTRACTIntermittent water supply (IWS) system refers to a system of water supply that delivers water to consumers for a fixed period (2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, etc.), which is less than 24 hours a day. Literature shows that the issue of inequity has been a major concern in IWS. In this study, an attempt has been made to simulate a new way of operation of IWS by including volume of nodal demand, such that, the flow becomes uncontrolled volume-driven pressure dependent. The novel methodology presented makes use of a pressure sustaining valve (PSV), which rearranges the flow within the network, thus improving the equity in IWS. Further, the study aims to quantify the equity in IWS by formulating two different approaches: uncontrolled pressure-dependent analysis (UC-PDA) and uncontrolled volume-driven pressure-dependent analysis (UC-VDPDA). Both approaches have been applied to three different water distribution networks. Results show that UC-VDPDA provides a more equitable supply in terms of getting a fair share of water to the consumers.KEYWORDS: Intermittent water supplyuncontrolled pressure-dependent analysisuncontrolled volume-driven pressure-dependent analysiswater distribution networksequity Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementSome or all data, models or codes that support the findings of the study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Important Notation AP=Artificial pipeAR=Artificial reservoirAT=Artificial tankCV=Check valveDDA=Demand-driven analysisDN=Demand nodeFN=Fictitious nodeIWS=Intermittent water supplyPDA=Pressure-dependent analysisPSV=Pressure-sustaining valveQj=Demand at node jQjavai=Actual available outflow at node jQjreq=Required demand at node jSN=Source nodeUC-PDA=Uncontrolled pressure-dependent analysisUC-VDPDA=Uncontrolled volume-driven pressure-dependent analysisVDA=Volume-driven analysis