Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Water, Water, Everywhere

UMass Water Tower, Orchard Hill, E. Pleasant Street, Amherst

The $1 million renovation of the UMass 1.5 million gallon (less than a dollar a gallon!) water tower is complete.  The tower is now back on line helping to provide adaquate water pressure throughout Amherst's water/sewer system.

And yes, in the event of a fire, you can bet the fire hydrant in front would provide a heck of a flow. 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! This is about nothing.

Larry Kelley said...

Picture is worth 1,000 words, CAN.

Walter Graff said...

Actually the rate of flow of the fire hydrant in front would be no different than one 1 mile away.

Anonymous said...

Actually, it would be less.

The hydrant 1 mile away is lower and thus that little thing called "gravity" would come into play.

Walter Graff said...

My point was about Larry's thought suggesting that perhaps because the hydrant is so close to the tank the pressure must be higher. Well a hydrant a mile away that is the same height as the hydrant in question has the same pressure due to hydraulic principles. It doesn’t matter if the tank is a mile away on another hill. The pressure will always be the same if the spout is the same height. If the spout is lower in terms of height to the bottom of the tank or the hydrant in front of it than the pressure goes up a bit due to gravity but even then not that much. If it's 30' lower it's a bit under 15 psi more pressure. All I was getting at.

Anonymous said...

Possibly of interest:
http://www.goacta.org/the_forum/college_business_officers_sees_bursting_bubble_in_the_offing

Anonymous said...

Walter --

Don't forget friction.
Don't forget intermediate usage.

Of course, I think that hydrant is there to bleed the line more than anything else. To bleed it in terms of flushing it, and also in case they ever get an air bubble.

Anonymous said...

wow... Anon 11:01. ever take a fluid dynamics class?

pressure head can be controlled anywhere in town by controlling the velocity at which it flows