Effects of Orifice Diameter and Retention Time of Local Tanks on the Reliability and Carbon Footprint of Water Distribution Networks

The role of private tanks is to provide excess storage to the consumer to satisfy the water demand. However, they are disregarded during the design stage, in favor of simplified network analysis. This affects the accuracy of the simulation because vital components, such as tank inlets and volume sizes, are completely ignored. Hence, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of advanced modeling of water distribution networks (WDNs), encompassing the presence of local private tanks, to determine the optimum values of different parameters of private tanks by conducting time- and volume-based reliability analyses. Two network models are used to perform the analysis: a small sample network and a real network that resembles the area of Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The results obtained from the simulation of networks indicated that the lowest orifice and volume sizes to achieve the required reliability of unity is the optimum values. Furthermore, it implied that any change in their optimum values would either result in tank failure or increase in the head loss and carbon footprint of the network.