Problem

How do you model a booster pump in WaterGEMS/WaterCAD?

Background

There might be some cases in which you want to model booster pump to increase the pressure in system in some scenarios and for other scenarios you want to flow to bypass normally through pipes.

This technote will help you in designing such system.

Solution

You can model an inline booster pump in WaterCAD and WaterGEMS as explained below.

The pump element can be used to model a booster pump; there is no difference in the data input. booster pump data can be entered for head and flow in the pump curve data and then numerical solver will calculate operating point of the booster pump based on system conditions. If required necessary controls can be added to turn the pump on and off.

If you want to model a bypass pipe for the condition when booster pump is off (to allow flow through), that can be modeled either with a check valve on a bypass pipe going around the pipe as shown below or with controls on that bypass pipes as required. The check valve would be oriented such that when the pump is on, it is closed, and when the pump is off, it is open.

Scenario with booster pump

Scenario without booster pump

Check valve on pipe

If flow does not need to pass through the pump in scenarios where the pump is not in place, you can add the booster pump in the base scenario and change its "status (Initial)" to OFF in the other scenarios.

See Also

Simulate bypass flow through a pump that is turned off 

Creating Controls - Conditions, Actions, and Control Sets (CONNECT Edition and V8i SELECTseries 6)