SWMM 5 or 5.0 Blog
Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) Information for watershed water quality, hydrology and hydraulics modelers (not associated with the EPA). You will find discusions of SWMM5, InfoSWMM, InfoSewer, SWMM4 and SWMM in general. You can see recent Posts in the Recent Post Section, Labels and Archives.
Friday, February 17, 2012
How to Make a Smaller Model out of a Large Model in InfoSWMM
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Maximum Surcharge Height Over Crown Explanation
Here is an example of how the Maximum Surcharge Height over the Node Crown is calculated. Consider a manhole with an invert of 10 feet, one incoming pipe (Pipe A), one outgoing pipe (Pipe B), both pipes with a diameter of 2 feet, but the invert of Pipe A is 10 feet and the invert of Pipe B is 11 feet. What is the Maximum Surcharge height if the HGL at the node is 17 feet?
HGL at Node ---- 17 feet
Maximum Surcharge Height Over Crown is 4 feet
Node Crown --- 13 feet Pipe B Crown --- 13 feet
Pipe A Crown --- 12 feet
Pipe B Invert --- 11 feet
Pipe A Invert --- 1o feet MH Invert --- 10 feet
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sunday, February 5, 2012
The Importance of Viewing Results at the Proper Time Scale
An Example of the Importance of the Term DQ4 in the SWMM 5 St Venant Solution
Use the SWMM 5 Scatter Graph to show the Pump Curve used during the Simulation
You can use a scatter graph to show the relationship between the pump during the simulation and the Storage Depth. If the pump is on the curve based on the pump summary table then the scatter graph should look like the pump curve. The pump summary table in the SWMM 5 RPT also shows you the time off the pump curve low and high.
From SciAM - Why Plants are important to River Formation
Perhaps even more surprisingly, vascular plants formed the kinds of rivers we see around us today, according to another article by Martin Gibling of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia and Neil Davies of the University of Ghent in Belgium, who analyzed sediment deposition going back hundreds of millions of years. Before the era of plants, water ran over Earth's landmasses in broad sheets, with no defined courses. Only when enough vegetation grew to break down rock into minerals and mud, and then hold that mud in place, did river banks form and begin to channel the water. The channeling led to periodic flooding that deposited sediment over broad areas, building up rich soil. The soil allowed trees to take root. Their woody debris fell into the rivers, creating logjams that rapidly created new channels and caused even more flooding, setting up a feedback loop that eventually supported forests and fertile plains.
"Sedimentary rocks, before plants, contained almost no mud," explains Gibling, a professor of Earth science at Dalhousie. "But after plants developed, the mud content increased dramatically. Muddy landscapes expanded greatly. A new kind of eco-space was created that wasn't there before."
Saturday, February 4, 2012
How to Import the SWMM 5 Report File as a Layer in infoSWMM
The idea of this blog of note is to show how one may extract information from the SWMM 5 or InfoSWMM RPT file and import the Excel File as a feature in InfoSWMM. This blog has an example Excel file to illustrate the linkage. The steps are:
Step 1: Copy the whole row from Conduit Summary from the InfoSWMM Browser
Step 2: Add the two columns length and slope from the Link Summary Table and the InfoSWMM Browser
Step 3: You need a few calculations based on the table values from SWMM 5 to estimate the CFL time steps in the .
Step 4: Add the Excel Spreadsheet as a layer in InfoSWMM – the Named Range should be added to insure valid numbers and not Nulls after the join
Step 5: You can now plot the CFL Time Step for the Links using the Layer Properties command in Arc Map
Step 1: Copy the whole row from Conduit Summary
Step 2: Add the two columns length and slope from the Link Summary Table
Step 3: You need a few calculations based on the table values from SWMM 5 to estimate the CFL time steps.
The CFL Step = Length / (Full Velocity + (Gravity * Full Depth)^0.5)
Full Velocity = Full Flow / Full Area
You also need to create a Name A Range for you data so that the data does not show up as Nulls
Step 4: Add the Excel Spreadsheet as a layer in InfoSWMM – the Named Range should be added
Step 4: Join the Excel Table to the InfoSWMM Conduit Feature Layer
Step 5: You can now plot the CFL Time Step for the Links using the Layer Properties command in Arc Map
How to Approximate a Timer in the RTC Rules of SWMM 5
SWMM 5 does not have a explicit timer in its Real Time Control (RTC) rules but you can approximate it by using a Control Curve as in the attached example model. The Control Curve will modify the setting of the Weir by the Inflow to the Storage node. You can have normal weir flow settings based on the invert elevation of the weir and the Surface node water surface elevation but in addition you can control the weir setting by:
1. Closing the weir when the inflow is low,
2. Closing the weir by staggered Storage node depth,
3. Opening the weir gradually when the inflow increases
4. Closing the weir by a combination of Node Depth IF statements and Control Curve rules
For example, you can have the Weir Setting controlled the Node Depth, Link Inflow and Node Inflow simultaneously approximately with the depth and the inflow parameters closing the weir by proxy instead of by time since the closing.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
North Carolina City Chooses InfoSewer
North Carolina City Chooses InfoSewer
ArcGIS Based Sewer Modeling Package Helps Hendersonville, NC Model and Manage Its Collection System
Broomfield, Colorado, USA, January 31, 2012
The City of Hendersonville’s Water and Sewer Department is responsible for providing water service to more than 62,000 residents and businesses of Hendersonville and Henderson County and sewer service to more than 19,000 residents and businesses. The Department is also responsible for the operation and maintenance of over 580 miles of water mains, 57 water pumping stations, 24 water storage tanks (ranging in size from 100,000 gallons to 5 million gallons), over 185 miles of sewer mains and 37 sewer pumping stations. “InfoSewer gives us the blend of powerful, easy-to-use analysis capabilities we need to effectively plan and manage our sewer system,” said Brent Detwiler, City Engineer. “We have a significant investment in Esri ArcGIS technology, and InfoSewer lets us leverage our GIS data for fast and accurate modeling.”
Certified by the National Association of GIS-centric Software, InfoSewer is a powerful ArcGIS-based computer program for planning, designing, analyzing, and expanding sanitary, storm and combined sewer collection systems. It can be effectively used to model both dry-weather and wet-weather flows and determine the most cost-effective and reliable method of wastewater collection. Built atop ArcGIS, InfoSewer enables engineers and GIS professionals to work simultaneously on the same integrated platform, commanding powerful GIS analysis and hydraulic modeling in a single environment using a single dataset.
InfoSewer is used worldwide by municipal engineers and planners to create detailed, accurate models of their sewer infrastructure systems. These models enable them to evaluate the effect of new developments, zoning changes, and other additional loads on system flows; pinpoint current and future problem areas; predict overflows and backups; and determine how best to restore needed capacity lost to infiltration and inflow with the least rehabilitation.
Users also rely on these models to compute hydrogen sulfide generation and corrosion potential; analyze the rate of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) exertion; track sediment movement and deposition; trace pollutant contribution from source nodes; perform time of concentration calculations; calculate the amount of pollutant transported to the wastewater treatment plant; and assess pollutants’ impacts on receiving waters. Extensive scenario management functionality enables users to analyze existing or future sewage collection systems. The application also provides vital tools for meeting and exceeding environmental regulations and improving community relations via database queries and map displays.
InfoSewer also delivers advanced design functionality and exponential increases in efficiency while simplifying use. Users can quickly and reliably design new sewer collection systems that consider standard design criteria such as flow depth-to-pipe diameter ratios, velocity, slope, soil cover depth, and pipe crown drop. Using user-input manhole locations and rules, InfoSewer calculates the optimal pipe and slope, invert elevation of conduits and manholes, soil cover depths at both ends of each pipe section, and cost of excavation and reinstatement to meet target design criteria. Results can be reviewed using profile plots with advanced labeling of 30 node and link variables, color-coded sewer maps of these variables, or 20 comprehensive tabular reports. The profile plots can be automatically updated in the model database for steady state and extended period simulations of new and existing designs, greatly simplifying the model-building process.
Together, these capabilities help wastewater utilities worldwide dramatically raise productivity and efficiency by rapidly developing practical and optimal capital improvement strategies that minimize costs while improving system reliability, integrity and performance. By making engineering professionals more productive and their organizations more competitive, InfoSewer delivers benefits utilities can pass on to their customers through better designs and higher quality standards, achieved in a shorter turnaround time.
“InfoSewer continues to evolve to meet the growing needs of top utilities around the globe,” said Innovyze Americas Operations Director J. Erick Heath, P.E. “We are thrilled that progressive leading utilities like Hendersonville are using InfoSewer to design and manage the most efficient sewer collection systems possible.”
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Philadelphia and Green Infrastructure
Posted on: January 18, 2012 4:14 PM, by Liz Borkowski
Philadelphia and Green Infrastructure
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Example SWMM 5 Model for Activated Sludge
Here is one example of how to model an activated sludge tank. The image is Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_sludge) and is the watermark background in the SWMM 5 GUI. There is 100 lps inflow, 20 percent recycle and 10 percent sludge drawoff. You can adjust the amount of recycle and sludge altering the pump type 2 flows or if you want to increase the inflows – add more flow in the RawWater inflow node.

Three Flow Divider Link Example in SWMM 5
You can have more than 2 downstream OUTLET Type links in the SWMM 5 dynamic wave solution. Each link, Under5, Over5 and ReturnFlow is an OUTLET Link with a rating curve depth/flow table. Depending on the depth in the storage node DIVIDER, the flow is computed from the table for links Under5, Over5 and ReturnFlow.
Output Statstics Manager to find negative flows in InfoSWMM
Output Statstics Manager to find negative flows with these parameters:
1. Pipe Features
2. Use a Domain with your force mains
3. Select Flow
4. Event Dependent
5. Total – NOT Mean or Peak to find the negative and positive flows
6. Large NEGATIVE Flow Threshold
7. Large NEGATIVE Volume Threshold
8. Zero for Interevent Time to pick up all values
9. You will get a table that shows you the minimun flows, and a histogram of the flows
Flow Dividers in SWMM 5 Dynamic Routing
You can have flow dividers in SWMM 5 dynamic routing by using Storage Nodes for the dividers, OUTLET links for the downstream links and minimizing downstream HGL effects. The needed components are:
1. A Storage Node for the divider node as a OUTLET Link does not have a Surface Area,
2. Two or More OUTLET Links as the downstream diversion and cutoff links,
3. Two or More Rating Curves to divide the flow up based on either depth or head,
4. Pumps, Outfalls or Steep Sloped Links Downstream of the diversion and cutoff links to minimize downstream HGL effects
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Keep and Dampen options and their effect on the four main terms of the St Venant equation
The four terms are are used in the new flow for a time step of Qnew:
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Rooftop gardens could solve Singapore's flooding problem
From SmartPlanet
In the last two years, rapid urbanization and changing weather patterns have lead to major flash floods in Singapore.
“[It] can be safely presumed that the weather patterns in Singapore have changed,” said Singapore’s Minister for the Environment and Water Resources last year after a flash flood where in one day Singapore received 77 percent of the amount of rainfall that usually falls in June. “It is very likely that our drainage systems will have to be redesigned to cope with such intense flashes.”
Singapore convened a panel to come up with the best options for dealing with flash floods and stormwater runoff. Their suggestion? Not an overhaul of the drainage system, but rooftop gardens.
Big infrastructure projects are costly and take time to replace. And while the upgrading the drainage system is likely necessary, the panel suggests a quick fix to Singapore: require rooftop gardens on all new and retrofitted buildings. Rooftop gardens don’t just add beauty to the city, they can also play a big role in mitigating floods by reducing and slowing stormwater runoff and filtering pollutants.
But it’s not just rooftop gardens, Singapore’s Today reports:
These measures are to be complemented with diversion canals, storage tanks along “pathways” of drains, drain capacity improvements, and finally, flood barriers, raised platform levels - some of which is already being done, but “could be carried further”, noted Prof Balmforth.
The panel also suggested storage tanks, rain gardens, and porous pavement.
Photo: HenryLeongHimWoh
/Flickr
Urbanisation has led to increase in storm water run-off: Expert panel [Today]
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Innovyze Surge Line Brings Surge Events to Life With Cutting-Edge Pipe Profile Animations
Innovyze Surge Line Brings Surge Events to Life With Cutting-Edge Pipe Profile Animations High Quality Animation Gives Engineers Inside View of Model Activities for the First Time | |||||
Broomfield, Colorado USA, January 17, 2011 — Innovyze, a leading global innovator of business analytics software and technologies for wet infrastructure, today announced the worldwide release of the SurgeAnimatemodule for its industry-leading surge product line. The breakthrough pipe profile animation module brings a new level of visualization and interpretation power to transient analysis, helping engineers quickly gain a thorough understanding of the complex phenomena occurring within their distribution systems. Available for InfoSurge and InfoWorks TS, the module is ideal for assessing the strength and effectiveness of water supply and distribution systems under a wide range of hydraulic transient conditions, from routine operation to emergency states. It has unprecedented power to help users confidently determine the best combination of surge protection devices to minimize the impact of objectionable pressure transients. The enhanced product suite reflects Innovyze’s vanguard position in the water industry and its continuing commitment to delivering pioneering technology for improving the safety and reliability of the world’s water supply. “This key new modeling functionality makes it easy to get a handle on how transient waves propagate over time in distribution systems, allowing water utilities worldwide to better see how transient events are mitigated by surge protection devices,” noted Christopher W. Baxter, Ph.D., President of HYDRANNT Consulting Inc., in Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada. “Innovyze continues to raise the standard in the industry.” Anticipating and controlling transient response is critical to ensuring the protection, integrity, and effective/efficient operation of water distribution systems. Transient responses can introduce pressures of sufficient magnitude (upsurge) to burst pipes and damage equipment. The resulting repercussions can range from extended service outages to loss of property and life. Transient responses can also produce sub-atmospheric pressures (downsurge) that can force contaminated groundwater into the distribution system at a leaky joint, crack or break, leading to grave health consequences when carried out downstream in the pipe system. Sustained sub-atmospheric pressures may also lead to cavitation and water column separation, resulting in severe “water hammer” effects as the vapor cavity collapses. The Innovyze transient flow simulation technology suite addresses every facet of pressure surge analysis and its role in utility infrastructure management and protection, delivering the highest rate of return in the industry. It provides the engineer-friendly simulation framework water utilities need to identify characteristics that can make their water supply and distribution systems more susceptible to transient pressure events. Users can quickly and efficiently assess the effects of power outages, pump shutdowns and startups, valve closures, rapid demand and pump speed changes, as well as the efficacy of any combination of surge protection devices. The product suite also accurately simulates cavitation and water column separation and evaluates their intensity. Its blazing simulation speed, unrivalled in the industry, makes transient analysis an easier and more enjoyable task. The new SurgeAnimate module enables users to create live animations of pipe profiles simply by specifying the first and last nodes; the rest is done automatically. Tank and reservoir levels, pump speeds, water flow or velocity rates are all animated. Many surge devices (such as air valves and bladder tanks) are also animated in detail. Animation speed can be set and stopped or restarted interactively at any simulation time period, allowing the user to thoroughly view and analyze the model’s transient activities (including cavitation pressure). Animations can be saved as AVI files. Armed with these mission-critical network modeling capabilities, water utilities can more accurately assess their susceptibility to low or negative pressures caused by transient surges, identify vulnerable areas and risks, evaluate and design sound control and mitigation measures, and determine improved operational plans and security upgrades. “The ability to confidently assess distribution system vulnerability to pressure transients is becoming more critical every day,” said Innovyze President and Chief Operating Officer Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D., BCEEM, Hon.D.WRE, F. ASCE. “Our new SurgeAnimate module makes models come alive, allowing users to go inside the pipes and network elements for the first time. This unprecedented ability to see and experience model transient activities in real time is critical to designing reliable, enduring systems and protecting public health.” |
Monday, January 16, 2012
Surcharged Node and the Link Connection in SWMM 5
A surcharged node in SWMM 5 uses this point iteration equation (Figure 1):
dY/dt = dQ / The sum of the Connecting Link values of dQ/dH
where Y is the depth in the node, dt is the time step, H is the head across the link (downstream – upstream), dQ is the net inflow into the node and dQ/dH is the derivative with respect to H of the link St Venant equation. If you are trying to calibrate the surcharged node depth, the main calibration variables are the time step and the link roughness:
1. Mannings’s N
2. Hazen-Williams or
3. Darcy-Weisbach
The link roughness is part of the term dq1 in the St Venant solution and the other loss terms are included in the term dq5. You can adjust the roughness of the surcharged link to affect the node surcharge depth.
Figure 1. The Node Surcharge Equation is a function of the net inflow and the sum of the term dQ/dH in all connecting links. Generally, as you increase the roughness the value of dQ/dH increases and the denominator of the term dY/dt = dQ/dQdH increases.
Figure 2. The value of dQ/dH in a link as the roughness of the link increases.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
HOW MOSQUITOES FLY IN RAIN from 3Quarks
HOW MOSQUITOES FLY IN RAIN
Mariel Emrich in Talking Science:David Hu, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and his graduate research assistantAndrew Dickerson have found that while mosquitoes do get hit by raindrops, they don’t get crushed by them.
Hu discussed their research in a talk at November's APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Meetingthat was entitled “How Mosquitoes Fly in the Rain”.
The researchers measured the impact forces of raindrops on both regular mosquitoes and custom-built mosquito mimics. The mimics were made from small Styrofoam spheres of mosquito-like size and mass. They used high-speed video to capture images of the mosquitoes getting hit with raindrops.
Since the bugs fly so slowly (a maximum of 1 meter per second) compared to the drops (which fall between 5 to 9 meters per second), the mosquitoes cannot react quickly enough for avoidance, and most likely cannot sense the imminent collision.
More here.
How to Make Icons and Expand the Toolbars in infoSWMM and InfoSewer
You can customize the toolbars in InfoSWMM and InfoSewer by clicking on Customize and performing 4 steps:
Step 1. Click on Customize
Step 2. Move the tool from the Command list to the toolbar.
Step 3. Change the Button Image for the Default Style.
Step 4. The Toolbar now has a new Icon for the InfoSWMM command.
How do I correct a fatal error resulting in automatic shutdown in ArcMap?
If you cannot open ArcMap, InfoSewer or InfoSWMM at all and get a fatal Esri error the problem may be the file normal.mxt
To remove the startup file in Windows XP for Arc GIS 10 go to the directory C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\Application Data\ESRI\Desktop10.0\ArcMap\Templates and delete the file Normal.mxt. You then reopen Arc Map and the normal.mxt file will be recreated and smaller. You will have to reset the ArcMap toolbars to better control InfoSewer and InfoSWMM.
Friday, January 13, 2012
SWMM 5 Engine Updates between v13 and v22 by Category
The complete list of engine and GUI changes can be found in this text file on the EPA Site http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/wq/models/swmm/epaswmm5_updates.txt
This note categorizes the engine changes by aggregating dynamic wave solution changes, surface ponding changes, RDII and Hydrology for example. The number preceding each change is the change number per engine update – the version of the engine update is shown at the end of each change paragraph. The Categories are General Changes, Dynamic Wave Changes, RDII Changes, Infiltration and Surface Runoff Changes, Climate Data Changes, Rainfall Changes, LID Changes and Water Quality Changes.
Build 5.0.018 (11/18/09)
2. Missing values for accumulation periods within an NWS rain

























