Water
Infrastructure Research at the University of Liverpool
ACTUI-related
research at the University of Liverpool is carried out in the Department
of Civil Engineering. The group includes four academics (Professors
Richard Burrows and Andrew Templeman, Drs Kamil Ali and Tiku Tanyimboh),
one postdoctoral researcher (Dr B Tahar) and four PhD students (James
Ackley, Paul Kalungi, Trevor McIlhatton and Seevali Surrendran).
The
group’s research interests are listed below and also on their website
http://www.liv.ac.uk/civil/s-research/environ.htm;
Sewer
Systems
Current
research may be summarised under three themes:
-
Pressure-Driven
Modelling and Performance Assessment of WDS
The
quantity of water supplied by a WDS is governed by pressure. Therefore,
under low-pressure conditions, pressure-driven WDS modelling is
concerned with the simultaneous determination of nodal pressures and
outflows which are consistent with the boundary conditions imposed by
the system pressures while minimising the shortfall in the amount of
water supplied. This area has EPSRC support (Grant GR/N02672).
-
Optimal
Control of Large Interceptor Sewer Systems
Using
linear programming, an innovative slug flow approach has been developed
to minimise the pollution of receiving waters by combined sewer
overflows. Simulations of the Liverpool system suggest that the control
policies can be determined rapidly enough for real-time control
purposes.
-
Maximum
Entropy-Based Bias-Free Inference Under Uncertainty
This
provides a least-biased estimator for systems with limited or inaccurate
data. Applications include:
WDS
model calibration and reliability-based optimal design Rationalisation
of errors in WDS data (per capita consumption, metering errors, pipe
characteristics, etc). This aims to distribute errors rationally to
obtain more robust computer models.