Water Distribution Network Design And Analysis:
A Case Study
Bhavana K. Ajudiya Dr. S. M. Yadav
PG Student (WRM) PG In charge (WRM)
Lakhadhirji Engineering College, Water Resource Management
GTU, Morvi-363642, India SVNIT, Surat-395007, India
Email:bhavanathummar@yahoo.com Email: smy@ced.svnit.ac.in
Abstract
This paper concerns for the design of rural water distribution
systems in developing countries. Most of population of India is
staying in rural area. At end of nineteen century community is
not getting water at their resident in the village. But water is
basic need of human being and it is directly effete on human
health. Indian government is decided to provide safe, regular and
adequate water to the community at their resident.
This paper is helpful to water supply engineers are
facing the problem of designing new distribution network in
haphazard developed rural area. For designing of best
economical water distribution system LOOP version 4 heuristic
software is used with a case study. Design procedure satisfied all
constraints with a minimum total cost. The constraints include
residual nodal pressure, velocity of flow in pipe, pipe material,
reservoir level, peak factor and available commercial pipe
diameters. In investigation, it is found that water distribution
network cost occupied almost 70% of the total cost of water
supply system. Extensive research has been done to minimize cost
through optimization in design of water distribution network.
In addition to the simulation tool, optimization
techniques to identify the least cost design of distribution systems,
while achieving the most equitable distribution of water have
been developed.
Keywords- WaterDistribution Network Design, Loop4 ,Cost
analysis
I. INTRODUCTION
At the launch of the International drinking water supply and
sanitation decade (in November 1980), Dr H.T.Mahler,
Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO),
stated that: “. . the number of water taps per 1000 population
is a much better indicator of a country's health status than the
number of hospital beds”, (Development Forum, 1987). The
importance of water supply is acknowledged by all
governments in developing countries who have and are giving
priority to this provision. Providing a water supply for a
community involves tapping the most suitable source of water,
ensuring that it is safe for domestic consumption and then
supplying it in adequate quantities.
The World Health Organization, (WHO Study Group, 1987),
defines:
Prof. B.H.Pandit
Head of Department
Water Resource Management
Lakhadhirji Engineering College,
GTU, Morvi-363642, India
 safe water as “water that does not contain harmful
chemical substances or micro-organisms in
concentrations that cause illness in any form”;
 and adequate waters supply as “ one that provides
safe water in quantities sufficient for
drinking, and for culinary, domestic, and other
household purposes so as to make possible the
personal hygiene of members of the household. A
sufficient quantity should be available on a reliable,
year-round basis near to, or within the household
where the water is to be used”[1].
Water is a basic need. Yet the provision of safe and adequate
drinking water for all our rural and urban communities
continues to be one of the major unfinished tasks. Lack of
access to safe water seriously undermines the health and well
being of the people. The poor and economically weaker
sections are affected more. Water constitutes one of the
important physical environments of man and has a direct
bearing on his health. There is no gainsaying that
contamination of water leads to health hazards. Water is
precious to man and therefore WHO refers to „control of water
supplies to ensure that they are pure and wholesome‟ as one of
the primary objective of environmental sanitation. Water may
be polluted by physical, chemical and bacterial agents.
Therefore, protected water supply is a sine qua non of public
health of a community [7].
II. DESIGN CRITERIA FOR WATER DISTRIBUTION
NETWORK
A. Supply of water
The hand book on Water Supply and Drainage, Bureau of
Indian Standards, New Delhi has laid down the following
minimum per capita domestic consumption for rural
communities with population up to 20,000:
i) where piped supply with service connections
is proposed
Not less than 70-100 l/c/d
ii) where supply is proposed through hand
pumps or central stand posts
Not less than 40 l/c/d
B. Pressure Head loss due to friction may be computed from the following
Adequate pressure should be available in distribution mains at formulae
all points located even at the remotest spots. a) Darcey-Weisbach formula
The following pressures are considered satisfactory: hf = 4fLV^2 / 2gD
i) Residential districts: Where hf= head loss due to friction (m)
Upto 3 storey : 2 kg/cm2 f= coefficient of friction which is function of
3 to 6 storey heights : 2 to 4 kg/cm2 Reynolds no.
6 to 10 storey height : 4 to 5.5 kg/cm2 f= 64/Re, When Re≤2000
Above 10 storey : 5.5 to 7 kg/cm2 f=0.079/Re^0.25 When Re 4000 to 10, 00,000
ii) Commercial districts : 5 kg/cm2 L= length of the pipe (m)
V=average velocity of flow (m/s)
A minimum velocity of .6 m/s should be maintained. The D=internal diameter of pipe (m)
velocities in pipes of different diameters should be as fallow: g= acceleration due to gravity=9.81 m/s^2
i) Pipe Diameter(cm) :velocity(m/s) b) Hazen William’s formula
10 : 0.9 This is the most widely used formula
15 : 1.2 V= 0.849 CR^0.63 S ^0.54
25 : 1.5 Where V= mean velocity of flow in pipe (m/s)
40 : 1.8 R= hydraulic radius (mean depth) (m)
S= hydraulic gradient
C= coefficient of roughness of pipe
C. Manual Recommendations 2) Head loss due to minor
The manual on Water supply and Treatment prepared by the hm =K V^2/2g
Ministry of Urban Development, gives the following Where hm= minor head loss (m)
recommendation for minimum residual pressures at ferrule K= coefficient of various fittings [7].
points:
Single storey building : 7m III. A STUDY AREA
Two storey building : 12m The village Sokhada is situated at distance of about 9 Km
Three storey building : 17m from the Rajkot Taluka head quarter. The nearest railway
Distribution system should not ordinarily be designed for station is Rajkot. The business of the people is agriculture and
residual pressures exceeding 22 meters. Multistoried buildings labour which eagerly depends on the rainfall, which is about
needing higher pressure should be provided with boosters. 500 mm for the taluka. The general topography of the village
D. Minimum pipe sizes is hilly. Population of this village is 1257 soul according
census 2001and present population 1471soul. At present,
The manual recommends the following minimum pipe sizes: water resource is Machchhu-1 RWSS. Machchhu-1 RWSS
Town with population up to 50000 : 100mm dia. planned base on Machchhu Dam-1which is located nearby
Town with population above 50000 : 150 mm dia. Sanosara village of Rajkot taluka. Water pumped from
For the dead end, less than 100 mm can be Machchhu Dam-1 to fill water in sump and water again
considered. pumped from sump to ESR at Sanosara HW. Water has been
E. Peak factors stored in Cistern of 60,000lits capacity with 0.5m plinth height
in the village and distributed through existing stand post
The manual on water supply has recommended the following
during the day ours. So People are collecting water from stand
value of the peak factor, depending upon the population:
post which is located at Head of Folia. Now community is
i) Population up to 50,000 : 3.0
ii) Population between demanding to provide water at their resident so it is necessary
for WASMO to design new economical water distribution
50,001 -2,00,000 : 2.5
network. In this paper Sokhada village is selected for water
iii) Population above 2 lakh : 2.0
iv) For Rural Water supply schemes, where distribution network design
supply is effected through stand post for  Historical population data is collected since year of
only 6 hours. : 3.0 1961census to 2001 census for Sokhada village of Rajkot
taluka.
 The present population forecast by Arithmetic Increase
F. Head loss in network method. The population is linearly increased from one
When water flows through pipes, head loss takes decade to next decade which can be decided by past four
place. Total head 333333loss is composed of the following decade population.
items : 1) head loss due to friction, 2) head loss due to bend,  And the future population is predicated for intermediate
contraction, expansion, fitting, entry, exist etc. stage after 15 year and ultimate stage after 30 year by
1) head loss due to friction
 considering 25% and 50% increase over present
population. WASMO has considering same. A. Design in Loop Software
Design of a looped water distribution network involves
selection of an appropriate pipe diameter for every pipe, so
that the water can be transported without violating specified
N Ahemdabad - rajkot 8B national highway
hydraulic constraints and the desired minimum pressures
91.95
maintained at nodes. Options for the location and capacity of
19

92.92
source nodes are normally relatively few and are hence
100 mt
24

20 mt
90.80
13
91.0
11
prefixed. The usual process is one of trial and error, where the
39 mt 40 mt
Exi. Stand Post

26
23
30mt
25
23

94.51 10 mt 94.34
21
18
94.40
12
92.52 70 mt 30 mt
9
90.48
engineer attempts a set of pipe sizes and checks the hydraulic
27 25 21 40 mt 40 mt Exi. Stand Post 91.27

27
92.27
30 mt
93.51
20 mt
24
94.24 95.67
100 mt
22
94.65
20
95.63 100 mtShree ram Temple
20
28
85 mt
15 mt
80mt 80mt 10
Exi. Cistern 12,000 Lit.

conditions to see if they are adequate. If not the engineer

50 mt
Zone-2
20 mt General Bathroom
30 mt 30 mt 14

94.04
28
94.50
26
23

95.64 Zone-1
21

96.84
22
19 30 mt 22
92.68

16

75mt
30mt
93.17

75mt
25mt
92.07
gram panchayat
changes the pipe sizes heuristically (or changes the pump
24 18
20 mt 94.92

18

93.99 20 92.0
17
15

locations and capacities if possible) to arrive at a workable

50 mt

alternative. Cost estimates, on which a final decision has to be

19

17

17
95.42 20 mt

16

100 mt
based, are made for each feasible alternative for the purpose of
11 12
13
Meldi ma temple
ranking. It seems at first that the computer programs could
30 mt 100.36 97.37 96.00
101.42
12
31
11 20 mt 20 mt

30 mt
15

30 mt
150 mt
directly solve the network for the required pipe sizes.
13
15
14
135 mt 95.52 95.51
30
16
29 30

99.83
20mt 99.10
7

150 mt 96.89
9

10
The following data are required to run LOOP4 software.
7 9

99.05
150 mt
5
6

30 mt
8

94.0
5 Exi. Stand post
1. Geometric data
99.03
5

150 mt
30 mt
4
Exi. Cistern 60,000 lit.

Exi. Stand Post

40mt

CT.
Node-pipe connectivity, Length of all pipes, Ground levels of
99.83 99.96

all nodes, Location of booster pumps and valves

3
3 4 3 B.m. 100.00
94.50
250 mt
2

Sanosara Road
2
150mt
3
96.00
94.50

2. Hydraulic data
Nakrani road

50 mt 200mt
1
30 mt

103.61
1
97.0 4

99.0
Average water demands at all the relevant nodes, Pipe
pro. sump 70000lits

Primary School resistance coefficient in terms of Hazen William's C or pipe

Village :- shokhada, Taluka:- Rajkot
roughness coefficient k in Darcy-Weisbach expression
3. Source data
Elevations of all reservoirs, Data on head-discharge curves for
variable head reservoirs
4. Cost Estimation Parameters
Node number Available commercial diameters up to three material classes,
Pipe line with data on unit cost and working pressure, Newton-Raphson
Pipe number stopping criterion (viz. Maximum allowable error in flow
Fig:1 Design Alternative-1,Water Distribution Network balance),Maximum and minimum pressure at nodes, Design
with Direct Pumping. hydraulic gradient [9].
5. Design alternative layout of study area is prepared by
IV. DESIGN OF WATER DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
conducting level surveying and linear measurement of
BY USING LOOP4 SIMULATION MODEL
length of street than after prepared in AutoCAD
Loop4 is a program that is developed of by the World Bank  Population per node find by calculating house hold x
for simulation, design & optimization of looped water family member.
distribution networks. The program is free and is in the public  From the population find out water demand of node
domain. The code for loop was developed by Dr. Prasad  Water demand for each node = population of node x water
modak and Juzer Dhoodia in 1990. demand in lpcd.
Loop software is a computer- aided planning and design of (For rural area population up to 20000 = 70 lpcd )
low cost water supply and waste water disposal systems in  Length of pipe is measured by taking linear measurement
developing countries. In this software, Newton – Raphson From the village than noding has been done. The total
technique and the Hazen- Williams or Darcy – Weisbach flow number of pipes in study area are 30 and 31 nodes in
equations are use for the heuristic design of looped zone 1 and 22 pipes with 23 nodes are in zone 2.
distribution networks. Loop version 4.0 handles up to 1000 6. Diameter of pipes are taken in range of 90mm minimum
pipes and 750 nodes as well as multiple sources with fixed or to 160mm maximum
variable heads, fixed or unknown flows, booster pumps, check 7. Elevation of each node determine by level surveying.
valves and pressure regulating valves. This program also 8. Peak factor 3 has been considered as per Indian water
shows hydraulic grade lines along chosen sections and supply manual for small water supply scheme.
calculates head losses, velocities, valve operating status, 9. From , above data input file is prepared for water
pumping heads, etc. and costs. The program has been designed distribution network design using LOOP software.
for easy entry, storing, editing and updating of data. It is 10. Input data file for water distribution system is run in to
provided in compiled QuickBasic form to speed program software.
execution [13].
 Fig:3 Total cost
N Ahemdabad - rajkot 8B national highway
comparision of both
compts
91.95
35

92.92
31
100 mt 91.0
90.80

2000000
45
40

20 mt
39 mt 40 mt
Exi. Stand Post
30
29 32
34 39 46
92.52 70 mt 30 mt
23 94.51 10 mt 94.34 94.40 90.48

92.27
27

30 mt
93.51
25

20 mt
94.24 95.67
100 mt
21

95.63 100 mtShree ram Temple

94.65 20
85 mt
30mt

15 mt
40 mt

80mt
40 mt
80mt
Exi. Stand Post 91.27
44
Exi. Cistern 12,000 Lit.
0 total cost
50 mt 20 mt General Bathroom
30 mt 30 mt
ESR based gravity
SUMPsystem
based direct pumping
37 41
36 92.68
94.50 30mt 33

94.04 26
40mt 93.17 25mt 92.07
28 95.64 96.84 gram panchayat
22 75mt 75mt
24 18
20 mt 94.92 42

10mt
43
93.99 38 92.0
19 50 mt

17
95.42 20 mt

100 mt
Meldi ma temple
VI. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
13

101.42
12
30 mt
11
100.36

20 mt 20 mt
97.37 96.00

15
The total cost of the water distribution network with service
30 mt 30 mt

135 mt
14
95.52 95.51
reservoir for design alternative 1 of Sokhada village is Rs.
16

8
20mt 99.10
7

150 mt 96.89
10mt
6,98,240 and for design alternative 2 of Sokhada village is
99.83

6
5 30 mt
9 10

49
Rs 13,31,690. The comparison of cost is shown in table1
Exi. Stand post
99.05
150 mt
99.03

30 mt
Exi. Cistern 60,000 lit. and figure3.
Exi. Stand Post
150 mt 10mt
99.83 99.96
4 3 B.m. 100.00

Sanosara Road
3
250 mt

50 10 mt
C. VI. CONCLUSIONS
96.00 T.
75mt 51
2 47 200mt
As per comparison shown in table:1 minimum cost of water
Nakrani road

175mt
30 mt
48
1

103.61
Pro. ESR 50000lits cap,12mt staging
52
supply scheme is water supply through direct pumping.
Primary School

Moreover direct pumping scheme required less maintenance

Village :- shokhada, Taluka:- Rajkot cost per person per month & it is easy to maintain & operate
also. An alternative approach to design has been developed
which minimize the cost of water supply system.

Node number REFERENCES

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[2] Kay Chambers, John Creasey and Leith Forbes, Safe Piped Water:
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