IT IS TIME TO UPGRADE MODELING SKILLS

IN WATER ENGINEERING
Jie Zhang, Ph.D., University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Carrie L. Knatz, P.E., CDM Smith, Carlsbad, CA

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

modeling has proven to be useful
in evaluating, troubleshooting,
and improving water (include
drinking water, wastewater, and
stormwater) systems. However,
due to the legacy of traditional
methods, including experimental
methods and empirical models,
and the lack of CFD experts in the
water industry, most environmental
engineers do not understand the
value CFD can bring to a water
project. Some environmental
engineers may be aware of CFD,
but hesitate to adopt it since CFD
might require expertise in fields
outside environmental engineering The participants of the EWRI CFD workshop at the World Environmental & Water
such as numerical analysis and Resources Congress 2017, Sacramento, CA. (Photo taken by Jie Zhang.)
computational science. Thus,
in practice, most environmental
engineers are still using traditional in wastewater treatment processes; Kevin Nielsen from CH2M
models or experiments which presented various case studies he has worked on using CFD,
are not as cost-efficient nor demonstrating the broad applicability of CFD in the water treatment
accurate as CFD modeling. industry; Srikanth Pathapati from Mazzei Injector LLC focused on the
challenges of CFD applications in the water industry. This workshop
To promote CFD in the water attracted more than 40 participants from academia, water utilities, consulting
industry, the EWRI CFD Task companies, and manufacturing companies. After the formal presentations,
Committee organized a workshop the passion of the audience filled more than 90 minutes of panel discussion,
on CFD in Water, Wastewater showing that a great interest in CFD application exists in the water industry.
and Stormwater Treatment at the
World Environmental & Water This workshop also enhanced the internal communication of the EWRI
Resources Congress 2017 for CFD Task Committee members. It has accelerated the progress of
the first time. In the workshop, developing a primer to introduce engineers to the application of CFD in
prof. Karan Venayagamoorthy solving engineering problems in the water industry. The success of this
from Colorado State University workshop encouraged the EWRI CFD Task Committee as well as its parent
introduced the fundamentals of committee, the Water Supply, Treatment and Distribution Engineering
CFD and the process of applying Committee, to continue promoting CFD tools in the community of civil
CFD to water engineering; and environmental engineers by organizing workshops or webinars.
Prof. Xiaofeng Liu presented
a detailed example of CFD
application in the design of physical
separation of particulate matters

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