(Photo by Tom Sawyer for ENR)

Software developers are refining tools to simulate pressure and flow scenarios that affect the design of water systems in networks as large as cities and as small as individual buildings.

Using improved models of city water systems, engineers working with the new release of InfoWorks WS now can use simulation to replace field tests of the flow, pressure and water quality issues of tapping hydrants in firefighting scenarios. The product by Wallingford, U.K.-based Wallingford Software can report on flow and pressure theoretically available at each hydrant and across zones in simulated fire fighting events. Municipalities may use the results in lieu of physical testing of up to 90% of a system’s hydrants, as long as the results from the others match the model findings.

At the other end of the scale, designers of building sprinkler systems have new analysis tools in PIPE-FLO Professional, from Engineered Software, Lacey, Wash., which runs calculations to the National Fire Protection Association NFP-13 standards, to size building pumps and lines.