Mass imbalances in EPANET water-quality simulations

Davis, Michael J.; Janke, Robert; Taxon, Thomas N.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/dwes-11-25-2018

Articles | Volume 11, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/dwes-11-25-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/dwes-11-25-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 1

Research article

|

06 Apr 2018

Research article |

| 06 Apr 2018

Mass imbalances in EPANET water-quality simulations

Michael J. Davis, Robert Janke, and Thomas N. Taxon

Data sets

Flow method for water quality transport T. Taxon https://github.com/ttaxon/EPANET/tree/flow-transport-model

EPANET INP files used in paper US EPA https://doi.org/10.23719/1375314

TEVA-SPOT-GUI - Containing preliminary flow model US EPA https://doi.org/10.23719/1375315

Short summary

EPANET does not always conserve constituent mass during water-quality simulations. The failure to conserve mass can result in significant errors in constituent concentrations. We document the occurrence of mass imbalances, explain why they occur, provide recommendations for minimizing mass imbalances, and present a preliminary water-quality algorithm for use in EPANET that always conserves mass. Our paper should be of interest to anyone who performs water-quality simulations using EPANET.