Date of Last Revision

2023-05-03 12:48:58

Major

Civil Engineering - Cooperative Education

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Date of Expected Graduation

Spring 2019

Abstract

The current infrastructure in our country will not be able to adequately support the growing demands of an exponentially increasing population. A rise in population contributes to a greater service demand necessary to treat sanitary sewer waste which in many cases contributes to the flow of combined sewers. When it comes to managing these combined sewers, rain and the snowmelt caused from climate changes are major factors that need to be addressed. Some water treatment facilities do not have the ability to treat the capacities or peak flows that a system experiences, resulting in combined sewer overflows which are both bad for the environment and an inconvenience to society. The almost 200-million-dollar project of Akron’s Ohio Canal Interceptor Tunnel (OCIT) sparked interest in the topic of storm and combined sewer management especially the concept in-line storage to significantly reduce peak flows which is discussed later. This Akron sewer project has increased the capacity of Akron’s combined sewer system. Increasing a system’s capacity is just one of the improving the water treatment process. Other procedures include redirecting flows, installing valves to regulate peak flows, and monitoring combined sewer levels with remote devices just to name a few. Initially the focus was to be on the City of Akron’s combined sewer treatment systems alone, but resources were made available that allowed an insight on what storm and combined sewer activities have been happening across the country. The implementation of real-time control systems, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), is becoming more common. This paper will look at multiple case studies of real-time control programs being utilized for a number of scenarios requiring different aspects of real-time control to gain a deeper understanding of their capabilities. This will help to determine whether or not these RTC programs can significantly benefit stormwater management facility operations and potentially eliminate combined sewer overflows.

Research Sponsor

Dr. Christopher Miller & Jesse Rufener

First Reader

Dr. Qindan Huang

Second Reader

Dr. Stephen Duirk

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