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How do you troubleshoot SewerGEMS or CivilStorm results using the implicit solver?
If your model does not successfully calculate, try the following steps:
1. If you are running hydrology (rainfall on catchments) as well as hydraulics, check the outflow hydrographs from catchments to make certain they are reasonable. In order to do this you can right click on the catchment and choose to graph the flow.
2. Check the model for errors:
Common data problems to look for include:
Conduits or Channels:
Pumps:
When pumps operate at or near the shutoff head point on their curve review downstream results for accuracy. In the past there have been cases where graphs of the hydraulic grade would show large jumps that were out of the range of the normal pump operating points. To resolve this adjust the pump curve by reducing the flow or head accordingly to produce a curve that operates near the point the pump is running at in the model. The new pump curve can be tested using the SewerCAD (GVF-Convex solver) because the pump calculations are done using the pressure solver, which is more stable for pump calculations than the implicit solver.
Look for areas displaying common modeling difficulties and verify input data is correct:
3. Simplify
Dynamic solvers tend to be complex, and little changes can sometimes make a big difference. What you should keep in mind when creating a dynamic model is to keep things as simple as possible and only model what you really need to study. In other words, if there are some conduits that can be left out because they won't have a significant effect on what you are studying or don't provide a lot of flow (near-dry) don't put them in the model or take the flow they would produce and add it to another node element as an inflow. With dynamic modeling less is better than more.
If you're working with a very large model, you may have a much easier time splitting it into smaller subsections if possible. Then, work on the sections one by one. Trying to troubleshoot results in a very large model can be cumbersome and overwhelming.
1) Parallel conduits with the exact same physical properties. Instead of putting both conduits in the model you might model this as one conduit with 2 barrels.
2) A pond with an outlet structure. Let's say the outlet structure was made up of a 24 inch orifice and a weir at the very berm of the pond. After going through the outlet structure the water goes into a 24 inch conduit. Assuming the water never gets up to the level of the weir what you could do to simply this situation is set the Pond Outlet Structure property for "Has control structure?" = 'No'. In this situation, this can be done because the conduit was the same size as the orifice, so the conduit will act as the controlling structure for incoming water.
3) A wet well with a sanitary load. Remove the sanitary load that is directly on the wet well and add it to a manhole upstream of the wet well or create a dummy manhole directly upstream and connect it to the wet well.
Before:
After:
4. Adjust the calculation options to reduce the continuity error
Default values for calculation options will work for the majority of cases, but some systems need small adjustments to converge. When the calculation is moving very slowly (you can observe that the model is stuck at certain times) or the results show apparent instabilities, it is an indication that the model is experiencing difficulties in converging to a stable and robust result. Try adjusting calc options in the order below. This is an iterative process and only one option should be adjusted at a time to see whether it gives better results or worse results. If the choice provides better results see if you can adjust it again more in the same direction to provide even better results than the first choice. For example, if changing the computational distance at 50 ft provides a continuity error of 25% and adjusting to 10 feet provides a continuity error or 15% then try to adjust it further to 5 feet to see if you can reduce the continuity even more. The goal with this is to get the continuity for the model under 5% and the lower the error the more accurate your results.
Most of the time you can get the continuity error under 5% using the 4 options above. If you still need to adjust things after that continue in the order below.
Note: There is no absolute rule on whether the time step, LPI Coefficient, or the NR weighting coefficient should be changed or to what specific value; normally you should reduce the time step and increase the NR coefficient but sometimes the opposite can also help.
5. Isolate problems areas: Isolate the problem area by incrementally deleting small sections of your model and re-computing. This may help you narrow down the source data that the engine has trouble with. It may expose data entry issues or areas that are exhibiting common modeling difficulties.
6. Determine at what time step the problem occurs. Look for what is happening at that time. Is a weir beginning to overflow? Is it the first time a large pump comes on? Sometimes it's easiest to look at your user notifications for the time or locate the problem on a profile and slide the time browser bar to that location before examining the model.
7. Switch to using the SWMM numerical solver (Analysis > Calculation Options > Click on the active option to open the properties). If there are problems when using the SWMM engine, try changing the Routing Method from Dynamic Wave (default) to Kinematic Wave or Uniform Flow. These methods do not handle backups as accurately as dynamic wave, but they tend to be more stable. If the results are still not stable with the SWMM solver (as seen in the summary output text report), try reducing the Routing Time Step calculation option. Suggested value range: 1.0 sec - 30 sec. Smaller values tend to yield more stable results.
Note: Headlosses at nodes are ignored during periods of supercritical flow.
Troubleshooting unstable SewerGEMS and CivilStorm model results using the Explicit SWMM Solver
8. Check your pumps to make sure the operational controls (if any are applied) have a large enough range between the On and Off value. What you're trying to prevent is having the pump cycle On and Off very quickly.
http://communities.bentley.com/products/hydraulics___hydrology/w/hydraulics_and_hydrology__wiki/21286.troubleshooting-unstable-sewergems-and-civilstorm-model-results-using-the-explicit-swmm-solver