A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master’s in Mathematical and Computer Science and Engineering of the Nelson
Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
The storm-water overflow on manhole is numerically solved in this study. To produce a real
representation of storm overflow, the Navier-Stokes equations were used. Turbulence flow was
modelled using the standard k-epsilon turbulence model together with the volume of fluid
method for phase surface tracking. The open-source fluid dynamics tool OpenFOAM 5.0 was
used for solving the model and the visualization tool, paraview 5.4.0, was used for processing
the solution data. The convergence test was performed at three different mesh sizes. The
numerical solution was independent of mesh sizes. The risen storm-water column inside a
manhole exerts a non-uniform pressure on the manhole cover. The non-uniform pressure
distribution leads to different uplifting forces at manhole cover areas. However, the global
uplifting force remains constant as long as the storm-water overflow is happening on the
manhole. The overflow intensity is on manhole, and areas opposite to the outlet pipe give the
highest intensity of the leaking storm-water. The rate of storm-water column rise inside a
manhole is reduced by the use of manholes with larger width (or diameters) and pipes of larger
diameters.