The development of technology has made it easier for engineers to design and test models that allow simulation of real-time water distribution networks with greater accuracy. However, with so many nodes and links in a network, building a model still requires some simplification. One such simplification is the ‘conservative approach’, which applies the principle of ‘lumped demand’, taking the demand only from nodes at the ends of pipes. Herein, the full effect of lumped demand on key water parameters is analysed, on a large-scale network based on as-built networks of Al Furjan and Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, UAE for different conditions. Epanet and WDNetXL software are used for the analysis, and results show the impact of different levels of skeletonisation on the head and velocity values for the two models. The analysis indicates that the head changes are high for a branched network under the extreme condition of firefighting. It includes the effect of skeletonising local tanks, with changes being higher when all tanks are empty. These findings provide a critical evaluation of the performance of this method for the Middle East region and it is concluded that the considerable velocity changes observed in the models could lead to overdesign.

中文翻译：

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各种条件下模拟供水系统的保守方法分析

技术的发展使工程师更容易设计和测试模型，从而更准确地模拟实时配水网络。然而，由于网络中有如此多的节点和链接，构建模型仍然需要一些简化。一种这样的简化是“保守方法”，它应用“集中需求”的原则，仅从管道末端的节点获取需求。在此，分析了集中需求对关键水参数的全部影响，分析了基于阿联酋迪拜 Al Furjan 和迪拜硅绿洲建成网络的大型网络在不同条件下的影响。Epanet 和 WDNetXL 软件用于分析，结果显示了不同级别的骨架化对两个模型的头部和速度值的影响。分析表明，在极端的消防条件下，分支网络的水头变化很大。它包括对本地坦克进行骨架化的效果，当所有坦克都为空时，变化会更高。这些发现对该方法在中东地区的性能进行了批判性评估，并得出结论认为，在模型中观察到的相当大的速度变化可能会导致过度设计。