FEM simulation of water lost through damaged household water connection

Abstract

The problem of water supply pipe’s failures is one of the most onerous for water distribution network’s (WDN) operators. Multiple actions undertaken to detect, minimise and eliminate the phenomenon of water losses are mainly focused on financial aspect of lost water. However, at some point, the further minimisation of water losses is unprofitable due to reaching the economic level of water leakages. In WDNs failures analysis the biggest emphasis is put on damages of main pipes and distribution pipes, while failures of household water connections are often neglected. That is because the most typical water losses in household connections are hard-to-detect background leakages with relatively small water outflow. Still, in a long-time perspective, such leakages can cause significant water losses. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the parameters of water lost through damaged household water connection (volume, velocity, suffosion conditions). The basis for the analysis were laboratory investigations and a numerical simulation of a pipe failure using the FEFLOW v. 5.3 software. The results of the simulation, compared with laboratory tests results, enabled to state that, contrary to the widespread practice, leakages from household connections cannot be ignored.