Water
Water leaves the treatment plant meeting standards. What reaches the tap depends on everything that happens along the way: in the service line, in the plumbing, in the water heater, and in the hours the water sits still.
Inside a building, water is a moving, reacting, living system:
| Layer | What it carries |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | Ions, gases (O₂, CO₂), chlorine or chloramine, organic carbon |
| From the pipe | Metals, scale, corrosion products |
| Living | Microbes, biofilm, Legionella |
| State | Pressure, velocity, temperature, time |
My work asks how these layers change, and why, across three connected questions.
1. Physical and hydraulic integrity
How do pipes and pressure behave, and when do they fail?
- Pressure transients (water hammer) in building plumbing
- Service line and water main failure and deterioration
- Pipe sizing and its hydraulic consequences
2. Water quality integrity
How does water change while it waits and moves inside a building?
- Water age and stagnation
- Disinfectant decay and integrated hydraulic–water quality modeling
- Contamination events, such as wildfire impacts on drinking water networks
3. The water–energy–quality nexus
What happens when saving water or energy works against safety?
- Hot water temperature, energy use, and Legionella growth risk
- Water conservation, lower flows, and longer residence time
- Water reuse and self-sufficiency in buildings
Why these belong together
Temperature and time govern most reactions in water. Flow governs temperature and time. People govern flow. Physical, chemical, and biological integrity are therefore not separate topics. They are one system, shaped by the building and the way we use it.
Related work is listed under Publications. How I study these questions is described under iBWS.