Systematic Design of Distributed Controllers for Sewer Networks

A novel concept for a systematic design procedure of a distributed controller network for global control of a sewer network is proposed. This concept is based on two simple controller types (local throttle controller, supervisory controller) which are connected systematically based on the structure of the sewer network and the available throttle and storage structures. The controllers are based on simple algorithms (nonlinear P-control, simple prediction models) which can be implemented in standard programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Design rules for the controller parameters are available. An appropriate simulation system allowing the design, test and validation of the developed concept which has been set up. The simulation system allows the description of the controllers using a standard PLC programming language (IEC 61131 ST). Finally, an example is presented to demonstrate the ability of the control concept to utilise a high percentage of the theoretically available improvement potential for automatic control. The approach presented is expected to be easily applicable in real cases and to reduce the typical effort required for the application of automatic control to sewer networks by at least one order of magnitude.