Modelamiento hidráulico y de la calidad del agua en un sistema de suministro de agua potable en una zona rural del cantón Azogues

Abstract

Currently, water distribution networks must maintain residual chlorine concentrations greater than 0.5 mg / L as recommended by García et al. (2020) in times of a SARSCoV-2 pandemic. However, in rural areas the lack of technological tools are a limiting factor when understanding the processes of water distribution and residual chlorine decay, making it necessary to develop a hydraulic and quality model. The objective of this investigation was to develop a hydraulic model and a water quality model for free chlorine prediction in the drinking water distribution system operated by the Bayas drinking water administration, Epanet had been used to simulate and evaluate the hydraulic behavior and the evolution of free chlorine over time. The hydraulic model was developed from the information collected in 2018, added to the updates made in the period of time to date in the Epanet 2.0 software, the model in question was calibrated and validated in order to obtain close values to those found in the supply network. From the resulting hydraulic model, a residual chlorine decay model was elaborated based on the calculation of the constant reaction of chlorine with water (kb), determined by the “bottle test”, the reaction constant with the wall of the tube (kw) entered in the program was taken from a similar investigation carried out in the urban area of Azogues. The results of the hydraulic model highlighted the existence of higher pressures than those stipulated in the Ecuadorian regulations, as well as oversized diameters in some sections of the pipe network. On the other hand, the quality model gives off close simulated values to reality. In addition, the calculation of an optimal concentration of residual chlorine in the distribution tank has reached, which satisfies the limits already mentioned in times of a SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Finally, the results of this work demonstrated that the mathematical models could reproduce the behavior of a water supply network, additionally it is possible to implement a hydraulic and quality model in a rural area