Design and simulation of a sewer blockage detection system :

Abstract

Sewer blockages in waste-water sewer systems is a serious problem for many cities and a challenge to the organizations responsible for sewer systems. Most sewer systems, a large percentage of the waste-water is lost in transit from treatment plants to consumers; Water loss can be attributed-to several causes, including leakages; metering errors, public usage such as. firefighting and pipe flushing, and theft Leakage is usually the major cause. This project analyses and reviews the existing leak detection systems, types of pipes, categories of pipes and analyses and inspects the likely causes of leakages and bursts in pipes for example Corrosion of internal and external surfaces of pipe network, excessive load/stresses from toad traffic, excessive water pressure, water hammer, too old pipes, poor design and mechanical damage. The research involved analysing data for the sewer line blockage detection system, relevant technologies that were used to design, simulate and validate the system. The research data collection methods included desk study, consultation, reconnaissance and document review; These were carried out with NWSC officials and the community members from different parts of the municipality so as to understand the likely causes of the blockages in the sewer system, how efficiently they were able to determine the blockages and how fast the blocked sewer systems were unblocked. This information helped come up with the relevant requirements for the system and the technical information involved in waste-water transportation through conduits so as to come tip with available system. The system design depended on the characterization of the parameters which among which included differences in discharge and differences in head. Bernoullis equation was used as the governing equation from which other formulae were derived for the distance to the point of the blockage. The system was divided into three major categories that was the input unit processing The system was simulated using HEC-RAS which was acting as the natural environment which data was input into MATLAB which as the micro-controller. The display of the results at the field was done by the FIELDGUI and office computer GUI acted as the display to the office computer. The folder linking the field GUI and office computer GUl acted as the GSM. The recommendation is that National Water and Sewerage Corporation should adopt this system to overcome the manual ways currently used.