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Creating System Head Curves in WaterGems

Posted by aqueduct on Thu, Jul 15 2010 4:05 PM

I am creating system head curves for our proposed water treatement plant for Warsaw, In.  The plant
will have 4 high service pumps.  The pumps are preliminarly sized as follows:

Pumps: 1) 2 MGD @ 225 TDH   2) 2.5 MGD @ 225 TDH  3 & 4) 3 MGD @ 225

The first run was an average day ss scenario and pumps 1 and 2 are running.   I noticed that the
system head curve for the second pump was averaging about 40 feet higher in head than the first
pump.  Shouldn't they be pretty much the same?  Note that I have the same conditions on either side
of each pump, for example the pipe sizes are the same, the lengths are the same, c-factors are the
same, minor losses are the same, and the elevation on the suction and discharge side nodes are the
same.

Should I see a difference in system head curves for each pump or should they be fairly close?

Also, I was told that maybe I should use a dummy pump (or system head curve pump) and make the
pump curve a close match to the particular system conditions for each run.  Is this something to
consider?

Respectfully,

Aqueduct

Posted by Jesse Dringoli on Thu, Jul 15 2010 4:30 PM

Hello,

A series of simple steady states are computed in the background when generating a system head
curve. These steady states account for the status of elements including other pumps. So let's say for
example the suction and discharge conditions are the same for pump 1 and 2, yet the initial status of
pump 1 is on and pump 2 is off. When you look at the system head curve for pump 1, it will be for a
condition where only that pump is on and the other is off. However when you look at the system
head curve for pump 2, it will be for a condition where both pumps are on. Therefore you'll have

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more flow in the system and more head for that the pump to overcome (the system head curve
changes.)

I would say that if you want to see the system head curve for a single pump, make sure to set the
initial status of the other ones to off. I would expect to see the system head curve stay the same
when doing this. This of course assumes you don't have any controls that might override the initial
status.

I hope this helps.

Jesse Dringoli
Supervisor, Bentley Technical Support Group

Posted by ahmad_quran on Sun, Jun 5 2011 12:20 PM

Hello,

Say we have a typical system of: suction tank==> pump==> transmission pipeline==> discharge
tank, and that you are producing the system head curve at that pump ( which has a rough single duty
point definition with Q equal to the total anticipated station flow and H is set  reasonably enough to
push water to its destination; of course the system head curve is independent from this defition but
one first prefers to have a model that runs correctly in steady state to then explore other aspects of
his syste).

The main feature of the obtained system head curve is that the static head (y intercept) is exactly
equal to the difference in water levels between the suction tank and discharge tank. Now, everyone
knows that we have a group of system head curves corresponding to different water levels,
demands,...etc but lets put this aside for a moment and keep things simple. So every thing is perfect
till now if they selected a single duty pump to operate against that system head curve and do the
job.

However, for obvious reasons (we all know why from our projects contexts, phasing...etc ) that pump
station will be equiped with say 3 duty pumps and one stand by to do that job. So in the model, that
single pump was replaced with the group of 3 parallel connceted pumps (all conditions are identical
for upstream and downstream of pumps, no difference in losses...etc). Now, basically because of the
alternating starts of pumps, every pump will encounter the case where it starts while no other pumps
are on, OR when 1 pump is on, OR when 2 pumps are on.

The system head curve generated when the whole station was represented by a single pump
corresponds to only when any of the pumps start when all other pumps are off. If one turns on more
than one pump, then there will be a shift in the system head curve starting from the y-intercept but I
note a point of convergence (see the graph). What do think this convergence point characterize
in physical terms?

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Also, with all the justifications about how when other pumps are on, there is already flow in the
system even if you start with a flow of zero at the location where the system head curve is being
generated (of course it is the adjacent pump plinth in the same hall!!) and that you need to overcome
the pressure generated by the adjacent running pump to be able to basically push any water at the
location where you are running the system head curve, why is it hard to sell this explanation (is there
still a better way of explaining that). The result is that some still consider that initially generated
system head curve in all their dealings and assume it is the same for all pumps. I appreaciate
comments on this? Is the shift in the y intercept when in the order of 30 m (guess the graph tells
more on the case where difference in water level between tanks is 50)) is something that is high?!
What would define high or low as I can't relate it to any other value except that I know the other
running two pumps are at duty H = 87 or so, so the 50+30 =80 is expected i would say!! I'm looking
for a strategy of communicating this.

Of course if any thing int he above seems inconsistent, please alert me before trying to answer my
enquiries

Posted by Mal Sharkey on Mon, Jun 6 2011 3:03 AM

That point of convergence is the point where the other running pumps are operating at (or past)
their shut off head, and so no longer have an effect. In other words, if you were able to deliver a flow
of 600 l/s (or more) from your first pump (the pump where you are computing the system head

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curve), your second and third pumps wouldn't be able to deliver anything - the head required would
be too great.

Many people are used to thinking of a system head curve as something that applies to an entire
pump station, which is why you have trouble explaining to them the influence of other running
pumps. But logically the way WaterCAD/WaterGEMS handles it is correct, and you clearly understand
the reasons for it. When explaining to your colleagues, emphasize that this system curve is for a
single pump only and so is sensitive to what other adjacent pumps are doing.

Alternatively, an easier way to present things to your colleagues may be to use the Combination
Pump Curve tool (under Analysis > Combination Pump Curves), which a recent addition to
WaterGEMS. This tool lets you show multiple curves for different combinations of pumps running in
parallel, and they can all be superimposed over a system head curve for the entire pump station.

For example, see attached. I set this up to be similar to your system (though it isn't exactly the same).
The magenta line is the system head curve for the pump station. The blue line is the pump curve for
one pump running, the red line is the pump curve for two pumps running in parallel, and the green
line is for three pumps running in parallel. 

This presents exactly the same information as your system head curve graph, but in a way that is
probably more familiar to most engineers. It shows that when one pump is running it will deliver
about 280 l/s @ 60m, while when two pumps are running they will each deliver 230 l/s (= 460 / 2) @
77m (demonstrating that the operating point of one pump depends on whether or not there are
other pumps running in parallel).

The shift in the y-intercept on your graph corresponds to the shift in intersection points between the
pump and system curves on my graph. This will depend on the friction loss in the system, but 30m
seems reasonable. You just need to make sure that all your pumps are operating at a reasonable

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efficiency when 1, 2 or 3 pumps are operating (the Combination Pump Curves tool can help you with
that as well). 

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Mal 

Posted by Mohamad Azzam on Mon, Jun 6 2011 4:12 PM

I would not to add any technical note, I just would to say to anyone read this correspondence that
WaterGEMS/WataerCAD is now has unique tool for generating system head curve even your pumps
are not typical, and the results are trusted 100%, for me it does save me a lot of working hours and
avoid me any errors when use Excel sheet and formulas, as well very nice for presentation and
generating output for reports.

I do not mean you should not do double check (you have to) but I am sure at very end you will be
convened with the program results.

In past I had a project which has three pump houses and we wanted to connect these pump houses
to three forcemain parallel (length = 15 Km), each station has its own ground elevation, and first
pump house (with three duty pumps) is far away 1.6 km form the connection point with two
forcemain (each 1000mm dia) the second (also with three duty pumps) is around 4 km away with two
forcemain (800 mm dia) the third one is 1.5 km away from connection point and has approximately
6000 L/s (has 8 pumps), so to do system head curve and to do check out for this complicated system
drove us crazy in calculation when we tried to use formulas and excel sheets.

With this tools in WaterGEMS and if you have complex system, really you will save hundreds of hours
and will have many scenarios when you want to check different operation of pumps in addition to
great graphs and report with trusted results. Think about my example and imagine how your life will
be easier with this unique tool built in WaterGEMS/WaterCAD.

For me it does and I hope I am helping any engineer reads this art.

Regards,

Mohamad Azzam        

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Posted by Mal Sharkey on Tue, Jun 7 2011 3:23 AM

Mohamad,

Thanks for that feedback. We are all very pleased to hear that the Combination Pump Curves tool is
helping you.

Regards,

Mal

Posted by ahmad_quran on Tue, Jun 7 2011 6:46 AM

Mohamad,

That must be Project DS164 ;-)

Guess I (and Bassam!) had to assist with some work inside the Xnew PS at that time...(if my memory
isn't failing me )

Mal

Thanks for your reply. I believe I have to upgrade my WaterGems build to have this.

Posted by Mohamad Azzam on Tue, Jun 7 2011 3:41 PM

Ahmad,

Absolutely you and Bassam spent great effort to make that project success when we used watercad,
but before we has involved other team spent a lot of hours using Excel sheets and they were not able
to create those charts and they were worries about any result they get; till we joint them and used
WaterCAD. was my pleasure to work with you and Bassam.

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Best Regards,

Mohamad Azzam  

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