Calibration of viscoelastic parameters by means of transients in a branched water pipeline system

In this paper, different arrangements of Kelvin–Voigt elements are implemented in an admittance matrix model to investigate the transient modeling of water distribution systems. The viscoelastic parameters are calibrated by experimental data acquired during a transient in a branched system of three HDPE pipes at the Water Engineering Laboratory of the University of Perugia, Italy. The dependence of the viscoelastic parameters on the branch characteristic time is investigated. Models with a single set of elements for all branches are compared with models with different sets of elements for each branch. When the same number of parameters is used, the former perform better than the latter. No evident correlation is found between the retardation times of the viscoelastic parameters and the branch characteristic times. The use of two measurement sections instead of one does not modify the calibration results significantly.