Modeling Ventilation Phenomenon in Sanitary Sewer Systems: A System Theoretic Approach

Municipal wastewater collection systems, due to the nature of their functions, carry varying concentrations of odorous gases. The production rate and transport of these gases within and out of sewer systems depend on air flow rate in the system piping. However, municipal sewers are generally designed to only transport sewage flow without giving consideration to the air flow field. As a consequence, the movement of air into, along, and out of collection systems is for the most part uncontrolled. The purpose of this paper therefore is to provide a new design protocol based on system theoretic techniques to be used by municipal engineers and environmentalists involved in odor control and sewer foul air transport studies. The modeling formulation accounts for combined wastewater drag and pressure-induced air flows, and manhole pressurization. The developed framework is applied to both hypothetical and real sewer systems to only illustrate the applicability of the modeling formulation.