Southern Water is collaborating with Ricardo to inject high performance car technology into its water distribution networks.

The water company has teamed with engineering experts at consultancy Ricardo Plc to apply the computer simulation techniques that Ricardo's team uses to optimise high performance cars to improving the resilience of the water distribution network.

Rachel Ashmole, project director at Ricardo commented:

'At first sight, the challenges of strategic planning of water supplies might appear very different to those of designing a state-of-the-art car, truck or bus.'

'The automotive industry makes intensive use of simulation software to optimize the many fluid-based processes in both the combustion and coolant systems of modern vehicles and we can adapt our software to help us develop advanced control systems for water networks'.

Engineers from both companies have been cooperating to use Ricardo's IGNITE computer aided engineering software which normally measures flows of liquid, air and hot exhaust gases in racing cars and other vehicles to help optimise parts of the Southern Water network.

Drew Brown, Southern Water's project manager commented:

'The applications might be different and distances, speeds and pressures very different but the physics is the same. We're delighted with how this collaboration is working.'

With the IGNITE suite adapted, the next phase in the project will be to model the whole of the Brighton water distribution system - while at the same time building up a library of standard simulated components such as reservoirs, pumping stations and boreholes which will speed the project as it is rolled out across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Sussex and Kent.