WATER QUALITY ANALYSIS FOR FLUORIDE CONCENTRATION IN FLUORIDATED DRINKING WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM VIA HYDRAULIC SIMULATION

Drinking water quality monitoring is compulsory in order to ensure that it does not pose any harm to the public health. Water fluoridation is aimed to provide sufficient amount of fluoride in the drinking water for the consumer dental health benefit. In this study, EPANET software was used to model the water distribution network from a specific water treatment plant and later to simulate the hydraulic and water quality analysis for the system. From the simulation and modeling of the water distribution network, the hydraulic simulation and water quality behavior for fluoride concentration of each nodes and links in the drinking water distribution network were found to change over time following the drinking water distribution segment. From the hydraulic simulation, especially for head and flow at a particular point in time, it consists of simultaneous solution of flow equivalence for every junction and headloss relationship in every link of network as a result of hydraulic balancing. In the water distribution network, every pipe in a network made up a single segment, where the water quality was proportional to its initial quality set at the starting node. In conclusion, the hydraulic status of the physical and non-physical components of the water distribution network found to have a significant impact on the fluoride content of drinking water.

Automated summary

The study used EPANET software to model a specific water treatment plant's water distribution network and simulate hydraulic and water quality analysis. It was found that the fluoride concentration in each node and link of the drinking water distribution network changes over time. The hydraulic status of physical and non-physical components of the network significantly affects the fluoride content in drinking water.