My name is Brume Mrore, a team member at BurnsleyTech Academy. I am participating at the Three (3) Day Engineering Software Training activity happening on the 28th – 30th of March 2018.

The training programme started at 10am, with Engr. Uche Ihunweze being the facilitator for the programme. He flew in from Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. Engr. Uche works with Wasser & Bau Ltd. He also doubles as the technical secretary of the Nigerian Society of Engineers in Abuja. [In the picture below, He is wearing a red shirt and blazer]

The chairman of the Nigerian Society of Engineers in Omoku, Engr. Goodluck Ikenyiri gave the opening remark thanking all participants for taking out time to develop their capacity [In the picture above, He is wearing a white shirt and blazer]. This was followed by a safety brief by Ibinabo Nkpata a representative for BurnsleyTech Academy.

In attendance, we had fifteen participants; Engineers from the Niger Delta Basin Authority, Port Harcourt Water Corporation, Niger Delta Development Commission, and the Director of Water Supply for the Ministry of Water Resources and Urban Development.

EPANET is a software that models water distribution piping systems. It is used to perform extended period simulation of the water movement and quality behaviour within pressurized pipe networks of any size.

Today’s class focused on planning for a water distribution/reticulation system. Despite all the technical jargons and theoretical knowledge being communicated, I was able to capture some nuggets that would add to your knowledge.

There are three (3) things that affect choice of pipe size when planning for a water distribution system.

• Slope – The slope of the pipe
• Friction factor (k-factor) – The internal friction within the pipe
• Flow rate – The velocity of water within the pipe

Nugget 1:

Did you know that the odour in ground water is sometimes caused by the lack of oxygen? The darker a water, the less amount of oxygen it contains. Generally, the minimum requirement of oxygen in water is 8 milligrams per litre.

Nugget 2:

When designing for water distribution system, it is important your design must provide for 200% of the original design. In other words, a water distribution for 4 persons should be designed for 8 persons. Water demand per person changes with lifestyle and environmental factors.

Nugget 3:

Friction factor (k-factor) meaning the roughness of a pipe affects flow rate. If flowrate is too slow, there will be sedimentation in the pipe. The level of flow in a pipe should not be less than 60% of diameter and more than 90% of the diameter of the pipe.