Multiple Wet wells and Pumps Model in Civil Storm

Question

Are there any limitations to modeling multiple wet wells with multiple pumps in Civil Storm with very intricate models which include several interconnecting ponds?

Scott Kampa · Accepted Answer

Hello Kyrra, 
 
Generally, there is no limitation for the number of pumps, wet wells, or interconnected ponds that CivilStorm can handle. If you are seeing instabilities for your setup, you can try making adjustments to the calculation options as mentioned in the Help topic "Troubleshooting the Dynamic Wave Solver" or at this link: communities.bentley.com/.../21403.troubleshooting-unstable-sewergems-and-civilstorm-results-using-the-implicit-solver . (You may have already done some or all of this.) 
 
Two items in the link above could be tried in your case. First would be to see if the Explicit (SWMM) solver may offer more stability in the results. Second would be trying to simplify the model. While ideally you would want to include all elements, if you are able to combine some of the elements in your model, you may end up with more stable results that are still usable for what you are trying to model. 
 
There is one more item that you may want to consider. Instead of modeling the whole system, you could try splitting it up into two separate models. There is an advantage to this. The Implicit solver is good at modeling storage, including interconnected ponds. However, the SewerCAD solver (included in the SewerCAD and SewerGEMS programs) is ideal for complex pumping situations. It may be possible to model the storage/ponding part of the model and get the outflow data. This would then be modeled as the inflow into the pressure part of the model, which could be modeled with the SewerCAD solver. This option may not be perfect, but it might offer a way to get stable results for the ponds while also getting accurate information from the pumps. 
 
Large, complicated models can be modeled in CivilStorm. It may be a matter of working with the elements you are modeling (including some simplification, if needed) and the settings in the calculation options. 
 
Regards, 
Scott