Title: eTank and contemporary online tools for rainwater tank outcomes analysis

Authors: Monzur A. Imteaz; Ramesh Karki; Asaad Shamseldin; Cristina Matos

Addresses: Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia ' Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia ' Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand ' Science and Technology School, Universidade of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal

Abstract: This paper presents development of a comprehensive decision support tool (eTank) to analyse and optimise a rainwater tank size. The developed tool enables a simple quantitative analysis of the expected water that can be saved based on daily water balance concept. The tool produces graphs showing cumulative yearly rainwater used, overflow and augmented townwater supply. To account for climate variability, provision has been made in the tool to analyse for a particular option in three different climatic conditions (dry, average and wet). Also, the tool enables a life cycle costing and payback period analysis of any particular tank size through the simulated expected water savings per year, initial construction costs and operational. The outcomes of eTank are compared with other contemporary online tools in regards to rainwater savings. It is revealed that most of the tools overestimate the potential savings due to not considering several influencing factors.

Keywords: rainwater tanks; daily water balance; climatic conditions; reliability; life cycle costing; decision support tools; optimisation; optimal size; rainwater tank size; water saving; rainwater used; overflow; augmented townwater supply; payback period; simulation; rainwater savings.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2017.084904

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2017 Vol.9 No.3, pp.372 - 384

Received: 10 Dec 2014
Accepted: 05 Feb 2015

Published online: 09 Jul 2017 *

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