Consumer
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50px|none|Symbol Systemelement Verbraucher
Consumers are both water absorbers and dischargers. They can be interpreted as municipal or industrial waterworks with a subsequent supply network, which require drinking or process water and release it back into a waterbody via the sewerage system and sewage treatment plant with a time delay. The time delay indicates how long the water quantity remains in the consumer on average until it appears again as clarified waste water in the body of water. The consumer replaces a detailed simulation of an urban area with sewer system. However, if a differentiated consideration of urban areas is required, this can be done with the help of urban catchment areas, pipelines and reservoirs as retention structures of the sewer system.
Demand behaviour
The demand behavior provides information about the desired water quantities. The definition of these water quantities is possible via two options.
- as a constant hydrograph, which repeats daily, monthly and yearly
- as measured or generated time series from the time series management
Subsidy behavior
A consumer can receive water from different water management systems or catchment areas to meet his needs. If a consumer now owns a water supply source that is located outside the system under consideration, there is a discharge or subsidy into the system. The determination of the subsidy behavior is done analogous to the demand behavior by two options.
- as a constant hydrograph, which is repeated daily, monthly and yearly
- as measured or generated time series from the time series management
Reintroduction into the system
Just as a consumer can obtain subsidies from foreign areas, he can also supply water to areas outside the system under consideration. Such a situation exists if a waterworks has to serve several supply areas, where at least one is not part of the system to be simulated. The discharge behaviour of a sewer system into a foreign area can be simulated in a simplified way using this method. This behavior corresponds to the simulation of transfers to other catchment areas. In such a case, a consumer behaves like a partitioning structure, whereby three different concepts are conceivable (for a detailed explanation of the options, see the branch element).
- Threshold value concept
- If the water flowing back from the consumer to the system exceeds a certain limit value, the portion above the limit value is cut off or not returned to the system.
- Percentage distribution
- A certain percentage of the water flowing back to the system from the consumer is treated as a discount to other catchment areas and is not returned to the system.
- Distribution according to a characteristic curve
- The amount of the discount to other areas depends on the current amount flowing back from the consumer.
The volume flows of a consumer are illustrated in the following figure.
