2.1.

Wastewater Flow Rates

2.1.1 Domestic & Non-domestic Wastewater
2.1.2 Infiltration & Inflow
2.1.3 Variability of Wastewater Flow Rates
2.1.4 Design Flow Determination

2.2. Stormwater Flow Rates

2.2.1 Introduction
2.2.2 Flow Rate Determination By Andinet Kebede (PhD)
Mar. 2024
• Wastewater is the main liquid waste of the community.
• Safe & efficient WW drainage mainly vital to
 maintain public health (potentially disease-forming microbes)
 protect receiving water environ (oxygen-consuming organic &
other pollutants in WW).
• Sources of WW:
Domestic Wastewater
• In many networks, this component most important.
• Generated from residential properties (primarily), institutions
(e.g., schools) & recreational facilities (e.g. leisure centres).

• Defining variable of flow - quantity domestic water use, which

is linked to human habits.
• Very little water actually consumed, or lost from system.
• Used (degrading its quality) & then discharged as WW.
• If proposed project- in community with existing WW collection
sy., historic records provide best estimate of WW quantity.
• If no existing data, installation of temporary flow meters or
nearby community with similar demographics.
 If demographics differ in some particular aspect (e.g. higher/lower
density of commercial facilities or major industrial part), total WW
production adjustment appropriate.
• Estimates from generalized data – needs care.
 All water withdrawn for use doesn’t end up in sewer.
 Roughly 60-90% domestic water- good estimate for residential WW.
 Regulations for water saving devices significantly reduce WW flow.
 Typical diurnal plot of water consumption & wastewater flow

• Water use > WW flow, esp. early evening (gardens watered).

• At night this situation reversed due to sewer infiltration flows.
Appliances
• WW production - strongly linked to ownership & use of wide
range of domestic appliances.
• Contribution of each depends on V of flow discharged after
each operation & frequency of use.
 Large volumes - washing machines & baths
 Relatively little - wash basin

* Use of low flow

variants of appliances
gradually reduce av. V
over time.
• Qs from individual appliances make up WW diurnal pattern.
• WC most important contributor overall.
 only of modest V, but used frequently, at peak periods.

Appliance diurnal
discharge patterns
from residential
areas
a) Commercial
• Includes businesses - shops, offices & light industrial units, &
commercial est.- restaurants, laundries, public houses & hotel.
• Demand - drinking, washing & sanitary facilities, but patterns
of use inevitably different to those by domestic usage.
 Toilet/urinal use more dominant part (50%) than in domestic.
• Daily av. WW flows may be estimated by unit count.
 e.g. No. of customers served multiplied by unit loads.

• B/s of wide variations observed, every effort should be made

to obtain flow data from actual or similar facilities.
b) Industrial
• Important in specific situations but more difficult to
characterize b/s of large variety of industries.
• Many of important components in domestic & commercial
premises much less important here.
• In most cases, effluents result from the following water uses:
 Sanitary (e.g., washing, drinking, personal hygiene)
 Processing (e.g., manufacture, waste & by-product removal,
transportation)
 Cleaning
 Cooling
• Flow rates of industrial sources highly site specific & should
be based on historical data from actual/similar facility.
• For rough planning, loads may be estimated from unit flow
rates presented in Tables.

• Water consumption often expressed in terms of volume used

per mass of product.
 E.g. papermaking 50–150 m3/t & dairy products 3–35 m3/t.

• May be significant seasonal changes in demand, e.g. due to agro-

industrial practices related to needs of food production.
Diurnal WW flow curves for various sources
• Unlike other sources, I&I not deliberate discharges but occur
as consequence of existence of piped network.
• Infiltration - flow that enters sewer through defective sewers
(cracks), pipe joints, couplings & MHs arising from
 Groundwater, spring water, seawater
 Water from other leaking pipes (storm sewers), streams, etc.

• Inflow– stormwater, enters separate foul sewers from illegal or

misconnected gullies, through roof downpipes or MH covers.
• Common & from a survey on separate sy., 40% of all houses
had arrangement whereby stormwater could enter sewer.
Problems
• Presence of excessive amounts of infiltration may cause:
 Reduced effective sewer capacity leading to possible surcharging
&/or flooding preventing flushing of toilets or pollution
 Overloading of pumping stations & WWT works
 Higher frequency of combined sewer overflow operation
 Increased entry of sediment (soil), resulting in higher maintenance
requirements & possible surface subsidence
Quantification
• Site specific, but when excessive, usually result of poor design
& construction & deteriorate as system physically degrades.
Influencing factors include:
 Age of the system
 Standard of materials, methods & workmanship in laying pipes
 Settlement due to ground movement
 Height of groundwater level (varies seasonally)
 Type of soil (hydraulic conductivity) & aggressive chemicals
 Properties of the sewer trench
 Extent of network- total L of sewer (including house connections);
type of pipe joint, no of joints & pipe size; no & size of MHs
 Proximity of other drainage networks (e.g. laid in same trench)
• Thus, amount of infiltration may range widely and can reach
serious proportions in old systems.
Exfiltration
• Opposite of infiltration; under certain circumstance, WW/stormwater
leak out of sewer into surrounding soil & groundwater.
• Creates potential for infiltration to another sy. & GW contamination-
critical where aquifer used for drinking WS.
• Values of exfiltration (as with infiltration) variable,
 Published rates of 1 - 13 % of dry weather flow in UK case studies.
 In Canada varies 0.6 - 15.7 m3/d.km during dry weather.
• Variability results from
 inherent differences across systems
 the many alternative methods of quantification used (many indirect)
• Factors affecting exfiltration - similar to those for infiltration.
• WW flow rate vary over several time scales: diurnal to design period.
Long term
• Until recently this trend was steady in per capita consu. on annual
basis, e.g. due to ownership of domestic appliances.
• Now reversed - increased emphasis on household water efficiency.

Annual (or seasonal)

• Variations within the year due to seasonal effects in water demand.
• WC flushing summer (probably due to rate of body evaporation)
& that of bathing/showering.
• Outside use significantly & this dominates demand in summer.
• Summer dry weather flow discharges normally exceed winter flows
by 10–20 %.
• Sewers of service areas with vacation homes & hotels experience
seasonal variation in flow.

Weekly – within days of the week

• Water use weekends, probably due to WC flushing & bathing.
• Peaks can also be high on weekend due to restaurant use, tourism
& car washing, & transfer of location rather than increase per se.

Diurnal
• Basic diurnal pattern shows variation from hour to hour of WW.
1. Variation of Domestic WW Flows
• Fluctuations greater in small community & during short rather than
long periods of time.
• WW flow rate variation reported as a factor of average day.
• When project proposed in community with existing community WW
collection & treatment sy., historic records provide best estimate of
WW production. This includes its variability.

2. Variation of Commercial, Institutional & Industrial WW Flows

• If these make up significant portion of av. flows (i.e. 25 % excluding
infiltration), PFs for each category should be estimated separately.
3. Variation of Infiltration Flows
• Negligible (highly impervious) to 25-30 % of rainfall for pervious
sandy subsoil.
• Infiltration of GW into sewer may be 0.01 to >1.0 m3/d•mm•km.

• For existing sewer, flow measurement provides best estimate of

infiltration/inflow.
• For new sewers, av. rates from similar existing sewers, corrected
for differences in materials, construction methods & anticipated
future conditions provide source of data.
Fixture Unit Method
• Engineers for commercial dev’ts (e.g. hotels & office bldgs) may also
want to use modeling for their projects but no data on existing
customers as water utility would.
• This resulted in Fixture Unit Method for estimating demands.

• Consists of determining number of WCs, sinks, dishwashers, etc. in a

building & assigning a fixture unit value to each.
• Fixture unit values (typical WW flows for common fixtures) -Table.

• Once total fixture units known, the value converted into peak design
flow using what is called a Hunter curve.
Average Loading Rate
• In USA,
 residential toilets made after Jan. 1, 1994 must use 6 L/flush.
 Commercial ones made after Jan. 1, 1997, must use 6 L/flush &
urinals must use <3.8 L/flush.
• Flow follows basic diurnal pattern, although each catchment
has its own detailed characteristics.
• Usually, low flows occur at night & peak morning & evening.

• This is related to pattern of water use of community.

The WW inflow hydrograph represents variation in WW generation.
• If WW collected at a point & then taken from an end of long pipe
to the other, flow (in-pipe storage causes reduction in peak flow),
lag in time to peak & distortion of basic flow pattern (b).
• Normal sewer sy. different; consist of many-branched networks with
inputs both at most distant point & adjacent to outfall.
 Thus, time for WW to travel from input to point of interest vary
& this causes further reduction in peak & distortion pattern (c).

• Additional factors influencing flow pattern - degree of infiltration &

number & operation of pumping stations.
Diurnal WW flow pattern modified by Definition of diurnal WW flow pattern
attenuation & diversification effects.
• WW flow defined in terms of:
 av. flow (Qav) or dry weather flow (DWF) &
 peak flow

• Large sewer design entails estimating av. DWF by assuming a daily

amount of WW generated per person (or per dwelling, or per ha of
development) contributing to the flow, multiplied by population to
be served at the design horizon.

• Commercial & industrial flows must also be estimated.

• Allowance should be made for infiltration.
• Peak flow found by using a suitable multiple or peak factor.
Dry weather flow
• When WW is mainly domestic in character, DWF is:
 Av. daily flow …during seven consecutive days w/out rain (excluding
a period which includes public or local holidays) following seven
days during which rainfall did not exceed 0.25 mm on any one day.
• If flow contains significant industrial flows, DWF should be measured
during main production days.
• Flows in summer & winter periods averaged to obtain repres. DWF.

• Thus, DWF - av. rate of WW flow not immediately influenced by rain;

includes domestic, commercial & industrial wastes & infiltration, but
excludes direct stormwater inflow.
• DWF = PG + I + E
Where: DWF - expressed in litres per day (L/d),
P - the population served,
G - the av. per capita domestic waste generation (L/hd.d),
I - infiltration (L/d),
E - av. industrial effluent discharged in 24 hours (L/d).

• Current definition of DWF has weaknesses, particularly difficulty of

finding suitable dry periods.

• Method involving statistical analysis of daily foul flows regardless of

rainfall has adv. of ease of calculation (w/out need for rainfall data).
Domestic flow (PG)
• Product of population & av. per capita water consumption.
• Population
 First step in predicting contributing ppn at end of design period
- obtain as much local, current & historical info. as possible.
 Official census info is often available & can be of much value.
 Additional data can be obtained at local planning authority &
officers should advise on future popn trends, & also on location
& type of new industries.
 Housing density - useful indicator of current or proposed popn
levels.
• Per capita water generation (G)
 Where typical discharge values for dev’ts similar to those under
consideration are available, these should be used.
 Specific design allowance made for buildings such as schools &
hospitals.
Infiltration (I)
• Conventional approach in design - specify infiltration as a fraction of
DWF – say, 10%. (for design figure of 200 L/hd.d, 20 L/hd.d).

• Recent evidence suggests this may be too low. E.g. for new sy. in
high GW areas, infiltration as high as 120 L/hd.d should be used.

• There is difficulty in making such a large design allowance for I.

 If used, design flow rate (required pipe dia.).
 Bigger sewer (larger circumference & joints), potentially allowing
more infiltration to enter system.
 allowance may actually cause more infiltration.
Is there a solution to this dilemma?
• Better investment to ensure high standards of pipe manufacture,
installation & testing.
Measurement
• I component of DWF can be estimated in many different ways.
 To assume that night-time flows (Qmin) represent infiltration.
 However, with unknown no. of appliances running overnight (e.g.,
washing machines, dishwashers), this assumption unsafe.
 Other approaches - using artificial tracers or inferring/based on
measuring commonly sampled parameters for WW quality.
• Computed value varied up to 20% of DWF depending on technique
used (considered acceptable).
Non-domestic flows (E)
• Most reliable approach - to make allowance for flows based on
experience of similar commerce or industry elsewhere.

• If these data not available, or for checking what is known, info used:
 examples of daily WW volume produced by commercial sources
 Areal (light …) allowance for broad industrial categories

• Most commercial & industrial premises have domestic component

of their WW & this estimation based on detailed survey of facilities
& their use [40–80 L/hd. (8 hour shift) may be appropriate].
Daily volume of WW produced from various commercial sources

Design allowances for

industrial WW
generation
Peaking Factors (PF)
• Most sewer laterals & mains designed to convey peak hourly flows.
• Steady-state model based on peak flows used in design process.

• In absence of site-specific data, PFs used to calculate design WW

flow rates from average flow rates.
Qpeak = Qavg * PF
where: Qpeak = peak hourly flow rate (Lpd)
Qavg = average daily flow rate (Lpd)
PF = peaking factor
• Where flow records available, at least 2 years of data analyzed to
develop peak-to-average flow rate factors.

• Where commercial, institutional or industrial users make significant

portion of total WW flow, PFs for the sources estimated separately.
• Peak flows for each source type may not occur simultaneously; thus,
adjust total peak flow to avoid overestimating peak hourly flow.

• To design new sanitary collection, codes & guidelines often specify

PFs to be used for estimating peak flows.
 4.0 for lateral & sub-main sewers
 2.5 for main, trunk & outfall sewers.
Peaking Factor Charts and Equations
• Curves usually present PF vs. either population or flow rate.

• Some of the most common variable PF calculation methods are:

5.0
 Babbitt (Babbitt and Bauman, 1958): 𝑃𝐹 = 𝑃 ; P = contributing popn
(1000)0.2

𝑃
18+ 1000
 Harmon (1918) & Great Lakes (GLUMRB, 1997): 𝑃𝐹 =
𝑃
4+ 1000
• GLUMRB standards indicate - eq. used in conjunction with av. daily
flow rate & covers normal infiltration for sy. built with modern
construction techniques.

• Graphs accompanying the standards indicate that the equation used

for population range of 100 to 100,000.

• Data for PF vs. av. flow collected from various WW systems tends to
yield a fairly straight line plot on log-log graph. Resulting eq. :

𝑷𝑭 = 𝒄(𝑸𝒂𝒗𝒈 )−𝒎
where C = constant (empirical coefficient);

Qavg = average flow rate (m3/s) & m = exponent

• Another PF curve, by Tchobanoglous et al. (2003), developed from
analysis of flow records from numerous communities all over USA.

• The curve is based on av. residential flow rates, exclusive of I&I, and
includes a small amount of commercial and industrial flows.

• The PF has a constant value of 4 for populations less than 5000;

most node service areas in models fall into that range.
 Calculated PFs from
six formulas.

PF curve, described by
• Stormwater: 2nd major urban flow of concern to drainage
engineer.
• Safe & efficient drainage of it is particularly important to
• maintain public health & safety (due to potential impact of
flooding on life & property)
• to protect receiving water environment

• Reliable data on quantity of existing & projected stormwater

flows - prerequisite for cost-effective urban drainage design.
• Quantity linked to nature & x-tics of rainfall & catchment.
• Transformation of rainfall hyetograph into surface runoff
hydrograph involves 2 principal parts.
1) losses due to interception, depression storage, infiltration, and
evapo-transpiration deducted from rainfall.
2) resulting effective rainfall transformed by surface routing into
overland flow hydrograph.

• Rain reaching ground lost immediately or as it runs overland.

 It may be fully lost from catchment surface by evapo-trans.,
temporarily stored in depression or eventually find its way to
drainage system via GW.
Stormwater runoff generation processes
• Magnitude & frequency of rainfall unpredictable & cannot be
known in advance.
So, how are drainage systems designed?

• Design is accomplished by
1) Choosing a suitable design storm
2) By quantifying physical properties of area contributing to storm.

• A number of methods of varying degrees of sophistication are

developed to estimate runoff flows resulting from rainfall.
1. Design storm
• Choice of design storm T determines degree of protection from
stormwater flooding provided by the system.
• In practice, cost-benefit studies rarely conducted for ordinary urban
drainage projects; decision on design storm T made simply based on
judgment & practice.
• Standard practice - to use storm T of 1 or 2 years for most schemes
(for steeper & flatter sites, resp.), with 5 years adopted at property
in vulnerable areas would be subject to significant flood damage.
• Current practice - to design systems such that surface flooding
prevented for storms with Ts 30 years.

• Flooding from combined sewers likely to be more hazardous than

that from open land, so type of flooding likely to occur influences
selection of suitable T.

• Table shows recommendation made by relevant Standard for design

storm frequency or T related to location of area to be drained.

• Suggested-carrying out design check to ensure adequate protection

against flooding, at specific sensitive locations.
IDF relationships
• One of first steps in urban drainage design, determination of rainfall
event(s) to be used.
• Most common approach - to use design storm involving r/ship
among i, duration & f/T appropriate for the facility & site location.

• Mostly, the hydrologist has standard IDF curves available for the site
& does not have to perform this analysis.
• But, worthwhile to understand procedure used to develop the r/ship.

• Usually, info. is presented as graph, with duration on x-axis, intensity

on y-axis & series of curves, one for each design T.
Typical intensity-duration-frequency curves
A1
A2
A3
A4
B1
B2
C
D
Equations for IDF Curves
• IDF curves also expressed as eqns to avoid reading design rainfall
intensity from a graph.
• Several semi-empirical as well as statistically consistent methods
developed to construct IDF curves.
• General IDF formula (encompasses all empirical r/ships in literature):

𝒄
𝒊=
(𝑻𝒅 𝒆 + 𝒇)
where i - design rainfall intensity, T
Td - duration, and
c, e, & f - coefficients varying with location & return period.
 𝑐𝑇 𝑚
• Also possible to extend the eqn to include T using, 𝑖 =
𝑇𝑑 𝑒 +𝑓

• Estimation of the parameters is based on frequency analysis of max.

rainfall depths. Steps:
 For each duration, series of annual max. values retrieved (i.e., from
1 min to 48 h) & fitted to suitable statistical dist. (e.g., log-normal).
 For each duration, intensities estimated from fitted dist., for a set of
Ts (e.g., 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 years).
 For each T, i of previous step inserted in numerical procedure to
establish r/ship b/n i & D, i.e. to estimate IDF parameters.

• The last step results in different values of IDF parameters for each T.
2. Contributing area
• Characteristics of contributing area significant for storm sewers:
 physical area,
 shape,
 slope,
 soil type & cover,
 land use,
 roughness,
 wetness,
 storage.
• Of these, catchment area and land use - most important for good
prediction of stormwater runoff.
Catchment area measurement
• Catchment boundaries - defined with reasonable precision either by
field survey or use of contour maps.
• Rain that falls within them directed (under gravity) to a point of
discharge or outfall.
• After preliminary sewer layout produced, catchment can be divided
into sub-catchment draining towards each pipe or group of pipes.

• Sub-areas can then be measured using GIS based package, normally

integrated within sewer simulation software.
• Aerial photographs may also be used. For simplicity, assumed that
all flow to a sewer length is introduced at its head (i.e., at u/s MN).
Land Use
• Once total catchment area defined, estimates made of extent & type
of surfaces that drain into the system.

• % imperviousness of each area measured by defining impervious

surfaces as roads, roofs, & other paved surfaces.
• Measurement can be carried out using maps, aerial photographs, or
satellite images.

• In absence of any local evidence or regulatory requ’t, design

allowance of 10% in catchment impervious area (Ai) can be
assumed to account for future urban creep.
3. Rational Method
• Old, but still most widely used for design of storm sewers (simple).
• Idea behind - if rainfall of intensity i begins instantaneously &
continues indefinitely, rate of runoff increases until time of conc. tc,
when all watershed contributing to flow at outlet.

• Product of rainfall intensity i & watershed area A is inflow rate for

the system, iA, and ratio of this rate to rate of peak discharge Q
(which occurs at time tc) is runoff coefficient C (0 < C < 1).
• Thus, Q = CiA
• Duration used for determination of design precipitation intensity i is
time of concentration of the watershed.
• In urban areas, drainage area consists of subareas of varying surface
characteristics.
• Thus, composite analysis required to account for that.
• Peak runoff computed using following form of the rational formula:

𝑄=𝑖 𝐶𝑗 𝐴𝑗
𝑗=1
where m - number of sub-catchments drained by a sewer,
Aj - Areas of sub-catchments
Cj - runoff coefficients of each sub-catchment
• The assumptions associated with the rational method are:

1) Computed peak rate of runoff at outlet point is function of av. rain

fall rate during time of conc., i.e., peak discharge doesn’t result
from more intense storm of shorter duration, during which only a
portion of watershed is contributing to runoff at outlet.

2) Time of conc. used - time for runoff to become established & flow
from most remote part of drainage area to inflow point of sewer.

3) Rainfall intensity is constant throughout the storm duration.

• Basis of Rational Method - an engineering “worst case.” Duration of

storm must be at least time of conc.; otherwise, max. flow would not
be reached. Worst case is when duration = time of conc.
Runoff Coefficient, C
• Least precise variable of rational method.
• Its use implies fixed ratio of peak runoff rate to rainfall rate for
the drainage basin, which in reality is not the case.
• Proper selection of C requires judgment & experience.

• Proportion of total rainfall that reaches drains depends on %

imperviousness, slope & ponding character of the surface.
 Impervious surfaces, such as asphalt pavements & roofs of
buildings, produce ~100 % runoff after surface has become
thoroughly wet, regardless of the slope.
 Description of Area Runoff Coefficients ERA, 2013
Business: Downtown areas 0.70-0.95
Neighborhood areas 0.50-0.70
Residential: Single-family areas 0.30-0.50
Residential: Multi units, detached 0.40-0.60

• Field inspection & aerial

Residential: Multi units, attached 0.60-0.75
Suburban 0.25-0.40
Residential (0.5 ha lots or more) 0.30-0.45 photos useful in estimating
Apartment dwelling areas 0.50-0.70
nature of surface within the
Industrial: Light areas 0.50-0.80
Industrial: Heavy areas 0.60-0.90 drainage area.
Parks, cemeteries 0.10-0.25
• Weighted av. coefficients
Playgrounds 0.20-0.40
Railroad yard areas 0.20-0.40 needed for areas of mixed
Unimproved areas 0.10-0.30 land use.
Woodland, Sandy Loam Soils 0.1-0.3
Sports Fields 0.2-0.35
Parks 0.1-0.25
Asphalt 0.7-0.95
Concrete 0.7-0.95
Concrete Blocks, uncemented Joints 0.5-0.7
Rainfall Intensity
• Selected based on design rainfall duration & return period.

 Design duration = Tc for drainage area under consideration.

 T established by design standards or chosen by hydrologist.

• A trial & error procedure can be used to determine the critical time
of conc. where there are several possible flow paths to consider.

• Tc to any point in storm drainage sy. - sum of inlet time (to) (time
it takes for overland flow from remotest point to reach sewer inlet),
& channel flow time tf in U/S sewers connected to outer point:

tc = to + tf
Time of entry
• Varies with catchment characteristics like surface roughness, slope &
length of flow path, together with rainfall characteristics.

Time of flow
• Velocity of flow in sewers calculated from hydraulic properties of the
pipe. Pipe-full velocity is used as good approximation over a range
of proportional depths. If sewer length is known or assumed, time of
𝒏 𝑳𝒊
flow can be calculated. 𝒕𝒇 = 𝒊=𝟏 𝑽
𝒊

where Li - length of ith pipe along the flow path,

Vi - is the flow velocity in the pipe.

• Inlet time, or time of conc. for the case of no upstream sewers, can
be obtained by experimental observations, or it can be estimated
using formulas, such as Kirpich’s.

• There may exist several possible flow routes for different catchments
drained by sewer; longest tc among times for different routes
assumed to be critical tc of the area drained.

Kirpichi’s formula: 𝒕𝒄 = 𝟎. 𝟎𝟎𝟕𝟖𝑳𝟎.𝟕𝟕 𝑺−𝟎.𝟑𝟖𝟓

Where: L = length of channel/ditch from headwater to outlet,

S= average watershed slope,