Solomon Seyoum

Learning objectives
 Upon successful completion of this lecture, the
participants will be able to:
 Describe and perform the required step for designing
sewer system networks
Outline
 Design philosophy
 Constraints and assumptions
 Design steps
 Design criteria
 Design example
Design philosophy
 A sewer system is a network of pipes used to convey
storm runoff and/or wastewater in an area.
 The design of sewer system involves the determination
of
 diameters,
 slopes, and

 crown or invert elevations for each pipe in the system

Constraints and assumptions
 Free surface flow exits for the design discharges;
 that is, the sewer system is designed for “gravity flow”;

 pumping stations and pressurized sewers should be

avoided as much as possible (are not considered here)
 The sewers are of commercially available circular sizes
 The design diameter is the smallest commercially
available pipe having flow capacity equal to or greater
than the design discharge and satisfying all the
appropriate constraints
Constraints and assumptions
 Sewers must be placed at a depth such that they
 will not be susceptible to frost,
 will be able to drain basements, and
 will have sufficient cushioning to prevent breakage due
to ground surface loading.
 To these ends, minimum cover depths must be specified.
• The sewers are joined at junctions such that the crown
elevation of the upstream sewer is no lower that of the
downstream sewer
Constraints and assumptions
 To prevent or reduce excessive deposition of solid material in
the sewers, a minimum permissible flow velocity at design
discharge or at barely full-pipe gravity flow is specified
 To prevent scour and other undesirable effects of high-
velocity flow, a maximum permissible flow velocity is also
specified
 At any junction or manhole, the downstream sewer cannot be
smaller than any of the upstream sewers at that junction
 The sewer system is a dendritic, or branching, network
converging in the downstream direction without closed loops
Design Steps
 Step 1 - Topographical map
 Obtain or develop a map of the contributing area
 Add location and level of existing or proposed details
such as:
 Contours
 physical features (e.g. rivers)
 road layout
 Buildings
 sewers and other services
 outfall point (e.g. near lowest point, next to receiving water
body)
Design Steps
 Step 2 - Preliminary horizontal layout
 Sketch preliminary system layout (horizontal
alignment):
 locate pipes so all potential users can readily connect into the
system
 try to locate pipes perpendicular to contours
 try to follow natural drainage patterns
 locate manholes in readily-accessible positions
Design Steps
 Step 3- Preliminary sewer sizing
 Establish preliminary pipe sizes and gradients
 Step 4 - Preliminary vertical layout
 Draw preliminary longitudinal profiles (vertical
alignment):
 ensure pipes are deep enough so all users can connect into the
system
 try to locate pipes parallel to the ground surface
 ensure pipes arrive above outfall level
 avoid pumping if possible
Design Steps
 Step 5 - Revise layout
 Revise the horizontal and/or vertical alignment to
minimise system cost by reducing pipe:
 Lengths
 Sizes
 depths
Design Criteria
 The following criteria need to be formulated for design of
sewer systems:
 peak rates of dry weather flow (wastewater + groundwater
infiltration)
 heavy producers of wastewater
 allowance for illicit rain water connections to sanitary sewers
 design storm
 runoff coefficient
 Pipe profiles (and materials)
 hydraulic friction constants
 minimum slopes of sewers
 outlet levels (maximum water level, invert for storm water)
Design Criteria
 For a large urban area the runoff factor and the wastewater
production are related to the unit area and classified into a
number of classes
 Dry weather flow production rate
Wastewater production
District/ Population Water Water
Area density consumption loses
Average Peak factor Maximum
p/ha l/p/d l/p/d l/p/d l/s/ha l/s/ha
1
2
3
Total

 Heavy producers of wastewater - Determine design flow rate

of heavy sewage producers
Design Criteria
 Infiltration to sewer pipes
 Assume specific rate of groundwater infiltration (in l/s/
ha) for sewers with their invert located below the
groundwater table
 Allowance for illicit inflow
 Compile available sewer sizes
Design Criteria
 Storm water quantities
 The amount of storm water to be transported is
determined with the rational method.
 Indicate what design frequency (return period) is used
 Determine the rainfall intensity - duration curve for the
required frequency
 Indicate runoff coefficients
Design Criteria
 Hydraulic criteria
 Steady and uniform flow conditions are assumed
 Usually Colebrook-White formula is used for the
design of circular conduits:

 
 s k 2.51 
V  2 2 gS f D log10   
 3.7 D D 2 gS D 
 f 

where ks pipe roughness (m)

Sf hydraulic gradient or friction slope, hf /L (m/m)
ν kinematic viscosity (m2/s)
Design Criteria
 Non-circular profiles (open channels, box profiles) are
designed with the Manning formula or any other
experimental formula
 Manning:
1 23 12
v= R S
n

where: n is roughness factor

Design Criteria
 Determine the hydraulic performance of selected
profiles
 Establish partial flow diagrams if necessary
Design Criteria

P = Dθ

D2
T = D sin θ
=A ( 2θ − sin 2θ )
8

=
D
(1 − cos θ ) D  sin 2θ 
y =
Rh 1 − 
2 4 2θ 
Design Criteria
 Minimum slopes of sewers
 To assure that sewers will carry suspended sediment,
two approaches have been used:
 the minimum (or self-cleansing) velocity and
 the minimum boundary shear stress method, also called the
“tractive force”
 self-cleansing - a full-pipe velocity of at least 0.6 m/s
Design Criteria
 Tractive force
   gRh s
 The required minimum tractive force of the flow should
be larger than the resistance of the sediments (τmin) or
the critical tractive force which is given by the following
formula;

τ min fgd ( ρ g − ρ w )
=
where d = selected specific diameter of sediment (grit) (from the sieve
analysis)
f = a constant called Shields parameter, for sewers f=0.056
Design Criteria
 Criteria for discharge -Maximum discharge levels
(invert level of the outlet pipe)
 Sanitary sewers Storm sewers
Design period Select suitable design period: Design Storm Select suitable design storm:
• population and industrial growth rate • return period
• water consumption growth rate. • intensity
• duration.

Contributing area Quantify: Contributing area

• domestic population Quantify:
• unit water consumption • catchment area
• commercial/industrial output • surface types
• infiltration. • imperviousness.

Dry weather flows. Select design method- Runoff flows Select design method - Calculate:
Calculate: • peak flow-rates and/or
• dry weather flows • hydrographs.
• peak flow-rates.

Hydraulic design Establish hydraulic constraints:

• pipe roughness
• velocities
• depths.
Calculate pipe:
• sizes
• gradients
• depth.
Calculation tables
 The design of sewers can be accomplished by using
design tables and steps provided in the lecture note
Example
 Design the a storm drain network for the arae shown
in the figure below for a rain fall intensity of 1 year
return period given by the following equation. Use
inlet time of 5 min and minimum concentration time
of 10 min. The design criteria are given in Table .

195
i = 0.708
t
Example

The runoff coefficient classes are as follows;

Clas Runoff
s coefficient C
A 0.10 Design criteria
Full capacity
B 0.35 Minimum
Diameter slope ‰ Flow Velocity
C 0.65 (m3/s) (m/s)
D 0.85 0.25 4.0 0.038 0 78
0.30 3.3 0.056 0.79
0.40 2.5 0.105 0.83
0.50 2.0 0.169 0.86
0.60 1.7 0.252 0.89
0.70 1.4 0.343 0.89
0.80 1.25 0.461 0.92
0.90 1.11 0.595 0.93
1.00 1.00 0.741 0.94
 key

A B A = Drainage sub-area number

B = Area in hectares
C C = Class of runoff coefficient

E F E = Manhole number
G F = Ground level
H G = Invert level upstream sewer
H = Invert level downstream sewer
 2 1.0 1 1.5
3
9.00
C C
7.60

10 1.5 9.80 3 0.88 7.40

11
A
7.55 C L=100m Φ0.40 L=100m Φ0.40
9.80 10.00
2

L=100m Φ0.60
L=100m Φ0.25 1
8.35 8.60

7 0.75 6 1.5
C B
9.00
4
7.23
8.70
12 7.03
7.15 L=100m Φ0.40 L=100m Φ0.40
7.10
4 0.62 L=100m Φ0.80 9.10 9.30
11 0.75 7
L=100m Φ0.30

8 7.90
7.65
D
B

9 0.88 8 1.5
13
9.00 D B
6.43

L=100m Φ0.90 L=100m Φ0.90 L=100m Φ0.50 L=100m Φ0.30

12 0.38 6
9.00 5 0.75 5
9.20
10
8.80
9
9.20
6.69 6.90 7.37 7.90
B D 6.80
End