Simulation of building drainage flows, waste solid transport and vent system transients

Of the identifiable building services systems within buildings, drainage and vent systems have up to now remained as the last to be capable of simulation. This situation has arisen due to the past reliance on national prescriptive design codes and to an inability to solve economically the defining unsteady flow equations. The advent of modern computing provision allows these restrictions to be removed and has led to simulations which are presented in this paper. The move towards performance codes and cross-national code harmonisation also encourages this form of treatment, as it allows for the first time a means of returning to the fundamental fluid mechanics which define drainage operation.