InfoSewer Inflow Control for a Pump with a Pump Curve

InfoSewer Inflow Control for a Pump with a Pump Curve

You can control the pumps in InfoSewer and H2OMap Sewer by using a Pump Control which will control the pump based on: 

1.       Volume

2.      Level

3.      Discharge

4.     Inflow

5.      Time 

If you use a By Inflow control the pump speed of the pump is increased or decreased to make the Upstream Wet Well Level Constant (Figure 1) for an exponential 3 point curve

Figure 1.  Inflow Control for  PUMP in InfoSewer and H2OMAP Sewer will change the Pump Speed of the pump to make the Wet Well level constant

What are the LID Control Flow Source Options in SWMM 5?

What are the LID Control Flow Source Options in SWMM 5?

The SWMM 5 options for Low Impact Development (LID) controls on a Subcatchment are very flexible, exciting, possibly recursive and a completely integrated method to treat both the pervious and impervious flow.  You can send the Subcatchment runoff to either an outlet node, impervious area of the Subcatchment, the pervious area of the Subcatchment or another Subcatchment.   You can have the LID control receive a portion or all of the impervious flow OR as in the EPA SWMM 5 LID example have the LID cover the whole Subcatchment and receive both impervious and pervious flow from one or multiple upstream Subcsatchments.  For example,  Subcatchment Swale4 in Figure 1 is 100 pervious and has upstream runoff from the pervious and impervious areas of Subcatchments S1, S3 and S4 in Figure 1.  The LID can also have either an outlet node or the pervious area of the Subcatchment on which it resides.

Batch Simulation for InfoSewer, InfoSWMM or InfoWater, H2oMap SWMM, H2OMap Sewer and H2OMap Water

Steps to set up a new icon for Batch Simulation in InfoSewer, InfoSWMM or InfoWater

1. Customize Arc GIS

2. Add an Icon

3. Run the command using the Icon

Global Dry Weather Flow Reduction in InfoSWMM and H2OMAP SWMM - Updated

Global Dry Weather Flow Reduction in InfoSWMM and H2OMAP SWMM

A cool tip to reduce the overall dry weather flow in InfoSWMM and H2OMAP SWMM without changing the mean dry weather flow is to do the following:

1.       Make a Reduction or Increase Flow Pattern in the Operations tab of the Attribute Browser (2),

2.      For example, if we want to have 85 percent of the flow use a value of 0.85

3.      In the Node DWF DB Table (2) use the pattern just created (3)

4.      All of the flows in the DWF table and during your simulation will be reduced by 15 percent.

Importing a Link Shapefile into InfoSWMM via GIS Gateway

Here is how you map the shapefile pipe fields to the InfoSWMM data fields.  One note, you had two diameter fields (feet and inches) and the feet column was mostly zero so I used the inch column.  Here are the four steps and mapping you need to import all of the data from your shapefile.  You will have to use blockedit and convert the diameter from inches to feet in the DB link table (Step 5 – note there are still three missing pipe diameters).

Step 1.  Use the GIS Gateway command and set up the import of the file name, and ID field

Step 2. Set up the mapping between the Shapefile fields and InfoSWMM.  We used link offset and the pipe diameter in inches.

Step 3. Load the mapped shapefile

Step 4.  The imported data from your shapefile into the DB table of InfoSWMM

Step 5  Convert to feet from inches

How to Compile SWMM 5 in Visual Studio 2010 Express

How to Compile SWMM 5 in Visual Studio 2010 Express

Download the newest SWMM 5 code(Figure 1) from http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/wq/models/swmm/#Downloads and then make a new directory on your computer. We will call it c:\newSWMM5Code with a subdirectory C:\newSWMMCode\VC2005_DLL  in which the attached vcxproj file is placed.  The source code from the EPA should be placed on C:\newSWMMCode.  You can then open up the file swmm5_ms.vcxproj and make a new SWMM 5 DLL model with your code modifications (if needed).

Figure 1.  The source code from the EPA for SWMM5.

How to Use Trace Upstream, Domain Manager and Facility Manager in InfoSewer to Find the CE

Use Trace Upstream, Domain Manager and Facility Manager in InfoSewer to Find the CE

InfoSewer does not have table of node continuity errors only an overall continuity error balance.  If you have a continuity error then you can use the process of divide and conquer to find the continuity error.  Start at the Outlets and using the Trace Upstream command, Domain Manager and Facility Manager take out whole sections of the network until you isolate the section of the network with the continuity error.    Here are the steps you can take:

Step 1.             Use Trace Upstream Network to find the and place in a Domain the Upstream Network (Figure 1).

Step 2.                          Once the upstream domain is created use the Domain Manager to add in any extra links without nodes (Figure 2)

Step 3.             Make the Domain Inactive using Facility Manger (Figure 3)

Step 4.                        Run the network and check the overall continuity error (Figure 4)

Step 5.                         Continue and repeat until you isolate the area that is the main source of the Continuity Error (CE).

Figure 1.  Trace Upstream Network and Place it in a Domain

Figure 2.  Use Domain Manager to take out links without nodes

Figure 3.  Use Facility Manager to Make the Domain Inactive

Figure 4.  Find and Isolate the Area with the CE.

Wikipedia Traffic for the SWMM versus EPANET Articles

Subject:  Wikipedia Traffic for the SWMM versus EPANET Articles

Wikipedia has one article for EPANET and three articles for SWMM 5 (two are redirected to the Stormwater Management Model Main Article).  The statistics for the last three years (data before 2007 is unavailable) show an average of 28 visitors per day to SWMM and 16 per day to EPANET).  The search name has switched from the word SWMM to Stormwater Management Model starting in 2009.

Steps to take and rules for Cloning Datasets in InfoSWMM and InfoSewer

Note: Steps to take and rules for Cloning Datasets in InfoSWMM and InfoSewer

Before cloning an active dataset, the user should switch to the Base Scenario.  This saves the active datasets and allows the user to clone the dataset with all edits. 

This is a brief description of how datasets are created and saved. 

·         Any data the user changes are only changed in the Active data sets while the user is working in a given scenario. 

·         The modified data are not saved into the selected custom data sets until the user selects different data sets—either by selecting a new scenario or by using the Edit Active Scenario command. 

If the user changes to a new scenario that shares some of the same data sets (e.g. same pipe, valve and pump data sets), the data in these common data sets are still not updated (saved) by changing scenarios.  The user has to actually select a different custom data set of the same type to get the data to update in the custom data set (e.g. the user must select a different pipe set to get the modified pipe data to save into the selected pipe set).  Once created, a dataset is not updated (saved) until it is no longer in use by the active scenario. 

In addition, there is a fundamental difference in between BASE dataset and other dataset(s). 

·         The other dataset(s) must be explicitly created first before they can be used. 

·         BASE dataset will "never" exist until it is switched off from the active scenario. 

·         It gets implicitly created at the first time when it is released from the active scenario.  That is why BASE dataset is never found in a "new" project which has only a base scenario.

How to Make an Internal Outfall into an External Outfall when you have more than one link connected to an Outfall in InfoSWMM

Subject:  How to Make an Internal Outfall into an External Outfall when you have more than one link connected to an Outfall

    Step 1:  Identify the Problem "ERROR 141: Outfall J-561 has more than 1 inlet link or an outlet link." Means you have an outfall node in the middle of your model.

Step 2:  Make a new outfall.

Step 3:  Make the new Outfall  have the same invert as the old outfall 

Step 4:  Convert the older outfall  to a Junction using the Pick Axe and the Convert Type tool

Step 5:  Make a new Link connecting the old and the new Outfall

Step 6:  Convert the new Link to an  Outlet Type using the Convert Type Tool.

Step 7:  Set up the parameters for the new Outlet Link

Step 8:  For those outfalls that DO have more than one link you need to make a new Outfall.

You should be able to run the model now

WARNING 04: minimum elevation drop used for Conduit - What Does this Message Mean in SWMM 5?

Subject:  WARNING 04: minimum elevation drop used for Conduit  - What Does this Message Mean?

This message means that the elevation drop across the link  is less than the minimum allowable drop or (0.001 /3.048 meters)

Elevation1 = Link Offset Upstream + Upstream Node Invert

Elevation2 = Link Offset Downstream + Downstream Node Invert

Internally Elevation1 – Elevation2 should be greater than 0.001 /3.048 meters.  If it is not then SWMM 5 or InfoSWMM will use the minimum drop or0.001 /3.048 meters

It simply is a rule that does not allow flat slopes as the flat slopes mean no normal flow calculations. You should not have to worry about this warningmessage.

Here is an example of a conduit in which the rule is applied.  The rule is applied to link U-104 because it is flat and has no slope.

How to Determine if your model is Unstable in SWMM 5 or InfoSWMM

Subject:  How to Determine if your model is Unstable in SWMM 5 or InfoSWMM

SWMM 5 and InfoSWMM has a good output feature in the RPT file that tells you the list of links with the highest flow instability during the simulation.  If you look at the link flow with the highest instability value and it looks okay to you then it usually means the rest of your model output is stable.  The index is the number of flow turns for the link during the simulation.  A flow turn occurs when

We call DQ the difference between the New and Old flow,

The value of DQ is greater than 0.001 cfs (we do not want to count small perturbations),

The sign difference between the new DQ and the Old DQ is negative.   In other words we want to count those oscillations in which the DQ value was negative and is now positive or was positive and is now negative. We don't count then when the flow is monotonically increasing or decreasing in the link.

For example, the Link U-104 below has a large number of Flow Turns but a plot of the link flow shows the Flow Turns to mainly unimportant.

The relationship between the rainfall, total losses from the previous area, evaporation and infiltration only rate for SWMM 5

Subject:  The relationship between the rainfall, total losses from the previous area, evaporation and infiltration only rate.

The total loss from a subcatchment pervious area is the sum of the evaporation + infiltration loss.  Typically the evaporation rate is much less than the infiltration rate. SWMM 5 now has too options – evaporation during only dry periods or evaporation during both wet and dry periods.

Figure 1:  An example network that shows the relationship between the rainfall, total losses from the previous area, evaporation and infiltration only rate. 

Figure 2:  The same model with the Evaporation during only Dry Periods turned on

Making your inactive elements active in different alternative scenarios in InfoSWMM

Subject:  Making your inactive elements active in different alternative scenarios in InfoSWMM

Step 1:  Open up the Facility Manager and turn off Apply to Active Facility Only, click on Map Selection and then finally the +Add button

Step 2:  Select those elements you want to add to the Facililty (they are yellow in this case)

Step 3:  Save and then Close the Facility Manager Dialog

Step 4:  The Objects should be active now.

Step 5:  Run the Model and check if they are being used in the RPT file.

Step 6:  You can also run the Compare Scenario Command to see the different alternative models use a different set of outfalls.

Risk Assessment Manager in InfoSWMM

Subject:  Risk Assessment Manager in InfoSWMM

If you can get the Risk Assessment Manager than you can do a flooding extent based on the Maximum Head or just the Flooded Nodes.