EPANET: modelling water distribution networks for livestock/agriculture?

[CaptainWally1980]

I know EPANET is primary intended for distribution networks of potable water. In large-scale ranches/farms, however, the distribution systems for water supply for animals is very similar. Reservoirs, piping systems, pumps, etc. I was wondering whether anyone of you know about applications of EPANET in the context of pipe systems for drinking water for cattle? I looked on Google, but did not find any references. Any comments about its feasibility are welcome!

[Santiago Arnalich]

Hi,

I've used epanet for both agriculture and cattle. Here are my two cents:

LIVESTOCK. You can use epanet as you would for a human water system, that is assigning a demand to each animal and a time pattern of how they consume and a "all taps open" modelling, as you would for public tap stands say in a refugee camp. In my case most of the animals drank at dusk and down in about 2 or 3 hours, and since their coming was in massive numbers I had to serve them on the fly. If you don't have a lot of animals and if the troughs are big enough (they would act as tanks) you can fill them more slowly and save on pipe diameters.

AGRICULTURE. Depends on your system but if it is irrigation then you can use epanet as you would for a water system. In a water system demands are forced and pressure calculated accordingly. In drip irrigation pressure is the key variable and flow will depend on it as a function of Q= C*p^gamma  . For this, leaks etc, you can set up emitters  in epanet.  Google emitters, epanet, agricuture and you'll find documentation.

Hope it helps and looking forward to the contributions of others.

On Sat, Apr 18, 2015 at 6:16 PM, CaptainWally1980 <captainw...@gmail.com> wrote:

I know EPANET is primary intended for distribution networks of potable water. In large-scale ranches/farms, however, the distribution systems for water supply for animals is very similar. Reservoirs, piping systems, pumps, etc. I was wondering whether anyone of you know about applications of EPANET in the context of pipe systems for drinking water for cattle? I looked on Google, but did not find any references. Any comments about its feasibility are welcome!

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[Santiago Arnalich]

A little typo that changes things significantly:

AGRICULTURE. Depends on your system but if it is irrigation then you can't use epanet as you would for a water system. 

[CaptainWally1980]

Dear Santiago.

Thanks a lot for the reply, and more important thanks for the confirmation of my suspicion: the principal idea is indeed to use epanet for drinking water distribution for cattle (pressurized). I am working out a proposal for a potential client. They own a huge ranch in a semi-arid area (>20.000 ha, similar amount of cattle), so water is a precious good as periods of no rain can hold on 1 year. They have already foreseen all basic infrastructure: reservoirs for collecting surface runoff, elevated Australian tanks, pipe systems for water distribution, etc. However, there are some punctual existing problems in the network. More important is the challenge of optimizing the operation. The water collection, storage and distribition system has grown in a very organic (unplanned) way. The idea is to measure the height difference between the reservoirs, drinking spots, and track the existing pipe lines. A hydraulic model in epanet would allow to calculate the theoretical capacity of the system, hence I think can use this model to identify existing problems and optimize the current infraestructure. What you think?

With friendly greetings,

Arnoud

[Santiago Arnalich]

Hi  Arnaud,

Most optimization you can do by just looking at the system if you have  optimized things before. I have used epanet to detect performance problems in the past but in old systems that need rehabilitation and for significant problems, ie, where a valve may have broken half shut without people realizing it. I find little optimizations that are very important in farms for the short benefit margins on each product, say 10%, are difficult with just epanet because of the blurry overlap  between calibration and what may be a little performance problem.

What you can do with epanet which is a very good way to gain experience and what I usually do in my work anyway is to run a number of scenarios with the different ideas that you may have to see how far they would go and their costs/benefits or even "brainstorm" the system if you have time in your hands and no experience.

I hope it helps