Dynamic Plug Flow Reactor Network Model for Contaminant Transport in Water Distribution Systems

We present a network water quality model that idealizes the distribution system as a network of ideal flow reactors, namely plug flow reactors. The plug flow reactors are linked together through an assumption of complete mixing at the network nodes. The resulting system of coupled 2-D (space - time) partial differential equations are discretized spatially using a finite difference scheme, and solved by numerical integration. The model will be evaluated with regard to its prediction capabilities, relative to previous modeling efforts