Date of Award
Winter 12-4-2019
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Degree Type
Thesis
Abstract
Inadequate treatment of drinking water causes the formation of disinfection by-products and the regrowth of harmful microbial species. Various studies have addressed the problem of water quality monitoring, but very few have employed topological analysis, a valuable mathematical tool widely applied in biological, business, and social research. This thesis examines the relationship between the topological properties of water distribution systems and water-quality models. In particular, the research proposes a novel framework for mapping network topological attributes to water-quality models. This research adopts topological metrics to assess the accuracy of the predictions of chlorine concentrations in dead ends. It examines four fundamental water-quality models: advection, advection-dispersion, bulk-advection, and bulk-advection-dispersion. The results show the bulk-advection-dispersion model has larger root mean square errors in networks with a grid structure, and that topological metrics are generally correlated with water-quality models, although more studies are required to develop this correlation in detail.
Language
English (en)
Chair
Pratim Biswas
Committee Members
Palghat Ramachandran Rajan Chakrabarty Jeff Yang