| Product(s): | WaterOPS |
| Version(s): | CONNECT Edition |
| Area: | Modeling |
Background
With OpenFlows WaterOPS, water operators manage their collection systems using technology from WaterGEMS and SCADAConnect Simulator. WaterOPS uses a streamlined user interface that includes the tools needed for operators to analyze and compute the water demand system. Among the tools available to the operator is the ability to model operational events and override existing controls and make demand adjustments statuses for elements in the model.
Workflow
Four operational events are available in WaterOPS. Fire Responses are used to model an additional demand at a node to provide the necessary flow to respond to a fire. Power Outages are used to model the impact on the system in cases where the power to the pump is cut off or if the pump needs to be taken offline for maintenance. Pipe Breaks are used to model the impact of a a pipe breaking and limiting demand to customers downstream of the break. Pipe Shutdowns are used to be model the impact of pipes being taken offline, such as by closing a valve.
In addition to the operational events, you can use Control Overrides to change the settings or status of elements in the model for a given period of time. This can help account for unexpected changes of pump settings or to adjust the status of a pipe if it is taken offline for maintenance or repair. You can also adjust the existing demands in the system by applying multipliers to some or all elements.
Operational Events
Fire Response
A Fire Response simulation enables you to place a fire demand (or other emergency flows) at a node for a period of time to determine its impact on pressure and flows and possibly test alternative ways of responding to the fire. To create this, go to the Operational Events manager, then right-click on Fire Events and select Add Fire. You can also click the New button and then choose Fire Response.
Once you click to create a new fire event, a Select dialog will appear. Select the node where the fire flow is placed and complete the fire flow demand, start date/time and duration of fire demand
If you have a case where fire fighters will use a large flow to control a fire for a few hours and then a lower flow to finally extinguish the fire, you would set up two fire responses for the same node, but with different start times demand demands. If you do this, Operational Event would end up looking like what you see below.
The node or nodes with the fire response will be denoted in the drawing with an icon, as shown here:
To simulate the Fire Response, first make sure that you have the Fire Response active by checking the box in the Operation Events manager. Ensure that the correct Baseline Scenario is selected. You can then compute the model through the Compute Center or by clicking the Computer button in the Ribbon interface.
If you want to edit an existing Fire Response, right-click on the Fire Response entry from the Operational Events manager. You will then be able to enter the input for the Fire Response, including an option to enable or disable it.
Pipe Break
The Pipe Break option enables the user to specify a pipe break or a shutdown of a portion of the distribution system. (A shutdown is simply an isolated pipe break with zero leak flow.) You can create a new Pipe Break multiple ways. You can right-click on Pipe Break in the tree form and choose "New Break." From the Operational Events manager, you can click the New button and then choose "Pipe Break Response." Either other these options will generate a Select tool bar to allow you to choose a pipe. After selecting the pipe, the following dialog is displayed.
You can set the leakage flow rate and choose the start time to isolate the break by checking the isolate break checkbox. Clicking the checkbox allow you to set the date and the time to run the simulation, as well as input an isolation duration. Enabling the checkbox also enables the “Isolate Break” button, which opens the window shown below.
Clicking the “Auto-Isolate” button will automatically select the closest isolation valves that are available to close off this pipe from the system and add them to the bottom portion of the Isolate dialog.
When a Pipe Break is active, an icon will appear in the drawing page, showing where this will occur. In the screenshot below, this is the icon on the left. If you are using the Auto-Isolate tool, the closed valves related to the pipe break will be displayed as well. Two of these are shown on the right in the screenshot below
If you want to edit an existing Pipe Break, right-click on the Pipe Break entry from the Operational Events manager. You will then be able to enter the input for the Pipe Break, including an option to enable or disable it.
Starting with WaterOPS CONNECT Edition Update 2 (build 10.02.03.06), the user can now visualize the outage area for a pipe break. This will be useful for an operator wants to see the pipe segments that will be offline when a pipe break is isolated.
An outage polygon can also be displayed, giving the operator a good visual representation of the impact of an outage.
Power Outage
Power Outage events enable the user to mark pumps or variable speed pumps as being affected by a power outage. This provides a simple interface for an operator to simulate the impact of such an event. You can create a new Pipe Outage multiple ways. You can right-click on Power Outage in the tree form and choose "New Outage." From the Operational Events manager, you can click the New button and then choose "Power Outage Response." Either other these options will generate a Select tool bar to allow you to choose a pump. After selecting the pump, the following dialog is displayed.
This will allow you to account for an outage during an historical simulation or to plan for an outage in real-time simulations. When the model with a Power Outage applied, the solution will include the results when the pump is not available. You can include multiple power outage events in the simulation. If the event does not need to be included, you can uncheck the box in the Enabled column. When the pump is enabled for a power outage, the symbol below will appear over the pump in the drawing pane.
If you want to edit an existing Power Outage, right-click on the Power Outage entry from the Operational Events manager. You will then be able to enter the input for the Power Outage, including an option to enable or disable it.
Pipe Shutdown
Pipe shutdown events enable the user to shut down a portion of the distribution system and simulate the results of doing so. This allows an operator to simulate the impact of the closure of a pipe in a simple interface. To create a new Pipe Shutdown event, you can right-click on the Pipe Shutdown selection in the Operational Events manager and choose "New Pipe Shutdown" or you can click the New button in the Operational Events manager and select "Pipe Shutdown." With either of these a Select toolbar will open, where you can choose the pipe you want to include. Once you have done this, the following dialog will open.
Here you will be able to set the start time and the duration of the shutdown. You can also select the Auto-Isolate button and the program will populate the valves needed to isolate the pipe. If there are no isolation valve or other valves in the model in that part of the system, you can select pipe elements to close. It is up to the operator to ensure that these pipes have sufficient valves to accomplish this isolation. During the time that the shutdown is isolated, the flows in pipes in that area are zero and the demands are zero. The hydraulic grade and pressure in the isolated area will not have valid results. When the Pipe Shutdown is enabled, the pipe will be denoted in the drawing.
If you have isolated pipes, this will be displayed as well. The location of the pipe shutdown is denoted by the symbol on the left. One of the closed valves needed to isolate this pipe shutdown is shown by the symbol on the right.
Operational Adjustments
There may be cases where you want to adjust the demands or change the controls that the model uses. With Operation Adjustments in WaterOPS, you can do this without the need to make physical changes to the model files themselves.
Demand Adjustments
To add demand adjustments, go to the Operational Adjustments manager and either right-click on “Daily Demand Adjustments” and choose Edit or click the Edit button. This will open a dialog where you can apply adjustments to demands or unit demands in the model.
The Scope field will be the elements you would apply the demand adjustment. This could be the entire model or an existing selection set. The Demand Pattern field will apply the specific demand to the elements. The Operation is the arithmetic operation you want to use and the Value is the value that the Operation will use. In the screenshot above, a multiplier of 1.2 would be applied to the demands in the model. In the lower right corner of this dialog you can use the compute button to estimate the total daily demand. Once you click okay, this will appear in the tree form list beneath Demand Adjustment.
Starting with WaterGEMS CONNECT Edition Update 3 and WaterOPS CONNECT Edition Update 3 (build 10.03.01.08), source and Signal options have been added to the Demand Adjustments. This enables you to be more flexible in choosing whether to manually adjust demands or populate them from a signal. When you open the Demand Adjustments, you can now choose a source, either User Defined or Signal. If Signal is selected, you will be able to choose from the available SCADA Signals available for the model. The closest available signal value to the start time of the simulation will be displayed and used in the Value field.
Control Overrides
With Control Override, you can adjust existing controls are add new controls to elements in the model. To add these, go to the Operational Adjustments manager and either right-click on Control Overrides and choose Edit or highlight Control Overrides and click the Edit button.
You will be able to select an element, like a pump or a pipe and choose an attribute. For a pump, this can be pump status or pump setting. For a pipe, this will be the pipe status. The Value field will be the value applied, which will vary based on the attribute used. The start data, time, and duration is used to set how long the control will be used. The priority field applies if there are multiple control overrides where there may be a conflict. If there is a conflict, a high priority control override will apply before a lower priority one.
Note: Starting with WaterOPS CONNECT Edition Update 3 (build 10.03.00.69), you can now automatically import control overrides when using the Historical or Historical (Live Training) simulation modes. If there are control overrides that are outside of the Difference Tolerance value, the control overrides will be automatically imported. The user can opt to set this automation field to False and manually update the control overrides.
Reporting Results
Results can be seen by way of color coding and annotations in the drawing pane. You can also view graphs of the results and Named Views of the area. These can be set up ahead of time and the results will update once you compute the model. You can also view results in element FlexTables and the Properties grid.
For Pipe Shutdown and Pipe Break results, you can also display the outage area. To do this, right-click on the Pipe Break or Pipe Shutdown event in the Operational Events manager, then choose Compute Event Outage. This will display the outage segments and a polygon showing the outage area.