Lift & Pump StationsAdvanced 13 min read

Lift & Pump Stations: Advanced Pump Station Design II – Force Main Hydraulics, Emergency Power & SCADA Integration

Force main friction loss and TDH calculations using Hazen-Williams, water hammer/surge fundamentals, emergency power and bypass pumping design requirements, and SCADA/remote monitoring integration for Class 4 pump station design.

Sizing the wet well only answers half the design problem — the other half is what happens once wastewater leaves the pumps. A force main has to be sized against friction loss, survive the surge every pump start and stop sends through it, and the station behind it has to keep running through a power outage without becoming an SSO. This guide covers the hydraulic design of the force main itself, the emergency power planning that protects it, and how it all ties into a utility's SCADA system.

Force Main Hydraulic Design: Hazen-Williams Friction Loss

Design standards require force main friction losses to be based on the Hazen-Williams formula (or another acceptable method), using a roughness coefficient

C

= 100 for unlined iron or steel pipe, or up to

C

= 120 for smoother materials such as PVC, polyethylene, or lined ductile iron. In practical U.S. customary units, with

Q

in g

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