The Maintenance of Drainage Systems of Urban Settlements
Ivan Hrskanovi
Faculty of Civil Engineering Osijek, Hochschule RheinMain
Introduction
The objective of this master thesis was to determine the optimal solution for the sewerage
network of the Viljevo municipality, located in Croatia and consisting of several villages. Since
some of the villages already have sewer network, the remaining four villages were observed.
Ivanovo and Kapelna have larger population than the Blanje and Bockovac settlements, with the
population of approximately 249 each, while the Blanje and Bockovac have populaion of
approximately 50 inhabitants each.
The master thesis also covers the various solutions for sewerage systems. Different methods of
drainage are explained, such as common drainage where the sanitary wastewater is mixed with
the rainfall, separated drainage where the sanitary wastewater has different pipelines for drainage
than the rainfal, and miscellaneous drainage where both common and separated systems are used
on some locations.
Also, the principles of gravitational, vacuum and pressure sewerage systems are explained. All of
the neccessary characteristics have been explained in detail. One of the main elements of every
sewerage system is the wastewater treatment technology. There are numerous methods of
wastewater treatment, and in this thesis the following were used: one-stage biological system
with activated sludge (traditional treatment), SBR system, constructed wetlands and OST
systems. On-site systems include sand filters, bio-aeration SBR units and aerobic-anaerobic
systems.
The thesis covers construction costs and maintenance costs over the period of 30 years.
Construction
The construction part of the thesis analyzes the costs of material and construction of the selected
sewerage systems. The systems have been divided into variatns. The variants vary by the
drainage system (gravitational or vacuum) and wastewater treatment technology. In the case of
OST systems, no drainage system is required. All of the variants include the description of the
necessary equipment for the proper operation of the sewerage systems.
A1 variant has been separated into two sub-variants, with
gravitational or vacuum sewer system, combined with
traditional wastewater treatment technology.
A2 variant follows the same principles as A1 variant, with the
difference being the wastewater treatment technology, in this
case it is the central SBR compact system (Sequencing Batch
Reactor).
B variant is a zonal system, divided into three sub-systems.
The drainage systems are optimally designed and constructed
with respect to slopes and lengths. The wastewater treamtent
technology for this variant is constructed wetland.
C variant includes the use of OST systems which require
no drainage system to be installed. Therefore it is the estimate that they will have the lowest
construction cost. The presumtion of two households per unit was made due to low population
density.
In the construction cost analysis first the unit prices were shown, and then the cost per variant
was calculated, the results of which are shown in the graph below. (prices shown in Croatian
Kuna, HRK, 7,5 HRK = app. 1 )
It is clear that the OST systems have the
clear advantage in the segment of the
construction cost. Also it it clear that the
use of gravitational system increases the
cost dramatically, mostly because od the
excavations, which are not so severe in the
vacuum drainage system. Vacuum system
has the factor of higher household connection costs, hence it would be more expensive to use in a
densely populated area if it would not use multiple houshehold connections. Vacum system also
has higher vacuum station cost than the gravitational system, but it uses fewer stations for the
whole system which is important from the maintenance aspect.
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Maintenance
When discussing maintenance it is important to point out that there are three basic types of
maintenance: preventive, corrective and predictive maintenance. Corrective maintenance is
carried out only in emergencies or when the system is not performing as designed. Hence, it is
very difficult to predict when and how often this type of maintenance will be needed, and it will
not be considered in this thesis.
Preventive maintenance consists of tasks designed to prevent breakdowns and failures. It is often
scheduled based on time periods or historical needs of the system. Benefits of these tasks is that
they can be planned and therefore sufficiently budgeted and equipped.
Predictive maintenance is based on the actual condition of the equipment. A set of procedures is
carried out to assist in determining the condition of the equipment in order to predict when and
what kind of maintenance is required.
In the maintenance of drainage systems there are two main components: inspection and cleaning.
These tasks are not the same in gravitational and vacuum system. The vacuum drainage system
has high fluid velocities which keep the pipelines clean, and any leakage from the pipes or other
types of breakdown are easily detectable on the telemetry system in the vacuum station.
Gravitational drainage system can be inspected in many different ways, such as: camera
inspection, smoke test, echo sound test, dye test and pump test, some of which are shown below.
There are numerous methods of cleaning the gravitational pipeline and they are all based on
clearing obstructions from the pipeline. Some of them are: rodding, bucket machine, balling,
scooter, jetting machine, etc.
As for the maintenance of the pump stations, as well as wastewater treatment plants, most of the
maintenance is based on cleaning the debris on the screens, or the sedimented sludge in the
tanks. Periodic pump replacement is necessary since they operate under heavy load.
As for the constructed wetland, most of the maintenance is based on vegetation preservance and
control, such as grass cutting and animal control.
On the right, the maintenance costs of drainage system over
the period of one year is shown, and below that the annual
maintenance costs for the systems (OST systems are shown
per system and per unit).
And below, the graph for the maintenance for the systems
over the period of 30 years is shown.
The charts comparing the construction cost and maintenance cost (on the left maintenance cost is
per year, and on the right over 30 years) are shown below.
Conclusion
It is now clear that over the period of 30 years the best results come from the variant using the
constructed wetland in the combination with vacuum drainage system. The simplicity of
maintenance and operation, combined with good results in drainage and wastewater treatment,
provide a stable and cost effective solution for the observed area.
Even though the OST systems have shown to be cheaper to build, their total number increases
the price dramatically. But, there is an option to construct the variation with the vacuum system
and constructed wetland for the Ivanovo and Kapelna settlements, which are larger, and for the
Blanje and Bockovac settlements, which are considerebly smaller, to construct the OST systems
(preferably BUSBR systems).
Contact
Master Thesis: Maintenance of drainage systems of urban settlements,
Ivan Hrskanovi, Erasmus exchange student
Mentor: Prof. Dr. Ing. Falk Schnher (HSRM), Prof. Dr. Sc. Marija perac (GFOS)
More information available by contact: ihrskano@gmail.com