This on-line manual is based on the EPANET 2 USERS MANUAL by Lewis A. Rossman. The original report number is EPA/600/R-00/057 (September 2000).
DISCLAIMER The information in this document has been funded wholly or in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It has been subjected to the Agency's peer and administrative review, and has been approved for publication as an EPA document. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. Although a reasonable effort has been made to assure that the results obtained are correct, the computer programs described in this manual are experimental. Therefore the author and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are not responsible and assume no liability whatsoever for any results or any use made of the results obtained from these programs, nor for any damages or litigation that result from the use of these programs for any purpose.
Chapter 2 of this manual describes how to install EPANET and offers up a quick tutorial on its use. Readers unfamiliar with the basics of modeling distribution systems might wish to review Chapter 3 first before working through the tutorial.
Chapter 3 provides background material on how EPANET models a water distribution system. It discusses the behavior of the physical components that comprise a distribution system as well as how additional modeling information, such as time variations and operational control, are handled. It also provides an overview of how the numerical simulation of system hydraulics and water quality performance is carried out.
Chapter 4 shows how the EPANET workspace is organized. It describes the functions of the various menu options and toolbar buttons, and how the three main windows – the Network Map, the Browser, and the Property Editor—are used.
Chapter 5 discusses the project files that store all of the information contained in an EPANET model of a distribution system. It shows how to create, open, and save these files as well as how to set default project options. It also discusses how to register calibration data that are used to compare simulation results against actual measurements.
Chapter 6 describes how one goes about building a network model of a distribution system with EPANET. It shows how to create the various physical objects (pipes, pumps, valves, junctions, tanks, etc.) that make up a system, how to edit the properties of these objects, and how to describe the way that system demands and operation change over time.
Chapter 7 explains how to use the network map that provides a graphical view of the system being modeled. It shows how to view different design and computed parameters in color-coded fashion on the map, how to re-scale, zoom, and pan the map, how to locate objects on the map, and what options are available to customize the appearance of the map.
Chapter 8 shows how to run a hydraulic/water quality analysis of a network model. It describes the various options that control how the analysis is made and offers some troubleshooting tips to use when examining simulation results.
Chapter 9 discusses the various ways in which the results of an analysis can be viewed. These include different views of the network map, various kinds of graphs and tables, and several different types of special reports.
Chapter 10 explains how to print and copy the views discussed in Chapter 9.
Chapter 11 describes how EPANET can import and export project scenarios. A scenario is a subset of the data that characterizes the current conditions under which a pipe network is being analyzed (e.g., consumer demands, operating rules, water quality reaction coefficients, etc.). It also discusses how to save a project’s entire database to a readable text file and how to export the network map to a variety of formats.
Chapter 12 answers questions about how EPANET can be used to model special kinds of situations, such as modeling pneumatic tanks, finding the maximum flow available at a specific pressure, and modeling the growth of disinfection by-products.
The manual also contains several appendixes.