A lot of water is wasted around the world. Through better control of water networks, we can minimise leakage and control the risk of wastewater contamination. Climate change, population growth and continued urbanisation puts a massive strain on the urban infrastructures transporting water, wastewater and energy for the consumers.
Through better control of the water networks, we can minnimise leakage and control the risks of wastewater polluting the drinking water suplies. Increased research in the robustness of systems is happening worldwide, but there is a lack of lab facilities to simulate the systems.
Smart Water Infrastructure Lab from Grundfos Foundation | PDJF on Vimeo.
We can study the interconnections
The partnership was launched in 2017. The lab is the first phase in a series of activities to support the research group’s development. It will be a flexible testing ground with 14 building blocks, which can be used to model different water networks. It comprises district heating, drinking water supply and waste water recollection.
- The Foundation helped establish the lab in 2017
- The lab was inaugurated in June 2019
- A new donation for further expansion was given in 2020 (aau.dk)
Part of the project is to also study the interconnection between different networks. In the last phase of the project, the group will collaborate with water utilities to collect network data. The real-life data will be used to make more realistic experiments. An example could be water consumption, which changes over the course of the day.
AAU Smart Water Lab’s 14 modules each has a specific functionality. It will allow the research group to simulate and test advanced water infrastructures.Photo: Poul Due Jensen Foundation
