Keywords: building drainage system, particle-based method, numerical simulation, water conservation, moving particle semi-implicit method.

In order to saving water in buildings, the used of water saving equipment coupled with more restrained user procedures is reducing the flow rate in water distribution systems. If the system sizing is not re-evaluated, especially, drains and mains clearance problems could arise. Despite the availability of simulation models, the complex free-surface flow inside pipes with elbows and junctions is an extremely nonlinear problem of which the complete modeling remains as a challenging task. Within this in mind, the aim of the present paper is to carry out a numerical investigation of flow patterns inside a building drainage system and provides an effective tool for the analyses regarding the performance of the drainage network. For this purpose and going beyond the limitation of the traditional approaches, a fully Lagrangian particle-based method denominated moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method is adopted. Focusing on the three dimensional transient behavior inside the drainage pipe system, simulations were carried out considering the effluents of a water closet in a drain and, in a second case, a drain from a shower and a wash basin connected to a water closet drain. A typical configuration of the drainage piping system is modeled, as well as the flow rate patterns from each appliance. For the sake of simplicity, the effects of the air entrapped inside the piping system and solid transport are neglected in the present study. However, as the first step toward a complete modeling of the multiphase air-water-solid flow inside drainage networks, this paper shows the feasibility and advantages of employing particle-based numerical approaches.

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