A Brief History of Flow Modeling |
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The flow of waste substances through a sewer pipe seems closely tied to precipitation, and levels of additional water flowing into the pipe. Prehistoric man's desire to document the levels of flow in the rivers of his world seems woefully non-existent. In later years, however, documentation of the behavior of rivers and streams became somewhat better. Did you know that in the middle east, mention of annual rises of the Nile can be traced back to 3500 BC? No doubt this posed a problem for the ancient Egyptians who found the Nile waters running into their root cellars! The Pharaoh Menes even developed a flood control system for the Nile River. Part of this system included at least 20 recording stations along the river that used a form of staff gauge to measure the water level. (Part of a modern evaluation of a Sanitary Sewer System involves measuring and computer modeling the amount of water flowing through sewer pipes) Sometime later, in 52 AD, Sextus Julius Frontinus (Rome's water commissioner!) quantified water flow in open channels by measuring the cross-section of the flow. And in fact, much of the theory and mathematical models for fluid dynamics came about in the 17th and 18th centuries. The more things change, the more they stay the same! |