Basics of a Splash Pad Design

Nirbo is a leading splash pad design company. Our company is located Toronto Ontario Canada, as a high quality splash pad design and manufacturing company we strive for product excellence in all aspects of splash pads. There are four aspects needs to be considered in a splash pad design.

1- Water Source
2- Manifold, Controller and Activator
3- Water Features
4- Drainage

This article is solely focuses on water supply side of splash pads designs where water is supplied from city main lines. This type of splash pad design is also called; fresh water system, city water systems, water to waste systems. We often get following questions regarding this type of splash pad design. Do I have enough pressure in my main line to operate the splash pad; the answer almost always is yes. The static pressure required to operate a typical splash pad is about 30 psi and city mainlines almost always have more pressure than this; typically 50 to 100 psi. Therefore we need to reduce the pressure to operate the splash pad properly. That is why we often need a pressure regulator also called pressure reducing valve to reduce the pressure. All pressure reducing valves are not same; therefore a high flow pressure reducing valve should be used to minimize pressure loss. Most common water supply line size is two inches, there are several reasons for two inch size and why it works, we will come this later. There are many assumption made in this article which does not apply to all splash pad designs, therefore we highly recommend you contact Nirbo or your aquatic engineer for a good splash pad design.

Manifold is the device where main water line comes in and from which water is divided into smaller water lines to go to water splash pad features. As mentioned before we need 30 psi static pressure on manifold for proper operation of splash pad. At 80 GPM flow rate we lose 5 psi at pressure reducing valve. Therefore gauge on manifold would read 25psi, when there is 80 GPM water flowing trough. Now we established minimum required pressure at the inlet of pressure reducing valve which is 30 psi, let’s have a look how far manifold can be from main water line. Pressure loss for a 2“ Sch80 pipe is 6psi for every 100ft (including some fittings let’s assume 8 psi), let’s assume city main has 50psi, therefore manifold could be about 250ft away from city main line.

There are some assumptions made in this article so you should consult your aquatic designer or call myself for further consulting.
I will discuss other aspects of splash pad design in another post.

If you have any questions contact the author.

Posted by
Mehmet Salih Sokmen, P.Eng.
President
salih.sokmen@nirbo.com
Nirbo Aquatic Inc.

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