Effect of Pipe Sags on Wastewater Collection System Performance: Fid-Bau Portal

Effect of Pipe Sags on Wastewater Collection System Performance

Sever, V. Firat / Foust, Henry

Sagging of pipelines is a common problem in centralized wastewater collection systems. Wastewater flowing through sags experiences several changes of slope, and the flow through flat and negative slope sections is prone to a significant reduction in mean velocity. The objective of this study is to determine when pipe sags would result in significant velocities below design conditions, which also would increase the risk of a sewer backup. A sagged pipe configuration that could be encountered in sanitary sewer systems was depicted; thereby, analyses on uniform and gradually varied flows were conducted to determine velocity profiles through different segments of the sagged pipeline setup used for the study. The results indicate that there are significant occurrences when either the velocity in the pipe sags goes below minimum, as recommended in the Ten States Standards (Health Research, Inc., 2004) (0.61 m/s [2.0 ft/sec]), or flow depth rises to pipe diameter (full section flow). Additionally, velocities along a sagged pipe were calculated for temporal flow rates to account for daily and seasonal flow rate changes in a typical wastewater collection system. Results of the temporal flow rate analysis suggest that, for a 200‐mm (8‐in.) diameter sagged pipe segment with full‐section (wet weather) flow, 75% of the mean velocities would be below the minimum velocity recommended as a Ten States Standard.