H2ONET Designer

MWH Soft announced H2ONET Designer:

H2ONET Designer is the state-of-the-art in water distribution system optimization. Software so rich and powerful it will help you identify the best combination of network improvements that meet target system hydraulic design/performance criteria at minimum cost. You can now conceive and evaluate effective and economical design, rehabilitation, and enhancement alternatives for upgrading and modifying your existing water distribution piping systems for improved performance. An invaluable and complete master planning and decision support tool, H2ONET Designer lets you quickly determine cost-effective rehabilitation, replacement, strengthening, and expansion options to reliably supply projected demands at adequate levels of service, considering any modeling condition time frame (e.g. maximum day), multiple design scenarios (e.g., find the single optimum solution that provides the standard of service under peak day for normal operation + average day under a failure scenario), multiple fire flow scenarios, and complete extended period simulation (EPS) designs (e.g. 24-hour operational design). You now have the tool to help you produce the best possible design and improvement alternatives with a minimum effort and at significant cost-savings. Such capabilities will greatly assist you in planning and designing a sound system and in optimizing your Capital Improvement Program. All in an extremely easy-to-use and fully interactive graphical environment.

Design Options
Up to 10 different design/rehabilitation options along with their associated costs can be specified. Default options include cleaning, cleaning and lining, and installing new pipes that can either parallel or replace existing pipes. For example, pipe replacement would be a viable option for structurally weak pipes while cleaning may be considered for structurally sound pipes and when no changes in future demands on these pipes are anticipated. If growth in demand is significant then paralleling may be a viable option.

Pipe Groupings
Pipes can be lumped together in separate groups of various sizes based on the pipe characteristics (i.e., structural condition, material, age, location, etc.) and the desired combination of design options to choose from. It is assumed that all pipes within a group (where a single pipe may constitute a group) will possess the same combination of alternative design options. Any combination of design groups with multiple design options (up to 100 groups) can be specified and their costs evaluated and compared. Pipes that do not belong to any group are deemed satisfactory and their characteristics will remain unchanged during the optimization process. This provides you with considerable flexibility in pipe network optimization, allowing you to directly optimize the entire network or any small portions of your existing water distribution system.

Design Criteria
Superior low cost solutions are determined to satisfy desired system performance criteria. These criteria can include minimum pressures at junction nodes, maximum velocities and hydraulic gradient (slope) requirements for pipes, and any of their combinations.

Cost Tables
For each pipe design group identified, H2ONET Designer allows you to specify your own custom cost data tables based on the available discrete sizes for the new pipes (as well as replacement or parallel pipes) or other rehabilitation options specified such as cleaning and lining. This gives you complete control over system improvement costs and streamlines the development of your Capital Improvement Program.

See the news announcement.