| Home > Products > StormNET > Case Studies > KPFF | |  | | | | | | |  | | | |  | | | | KPFF Cuts Engineering Time in Half with StormNET | | | | Founded in 1960, KPFF provides structural and civil engineering services, both as a consultant and prime designer, principally serving the construction industry. The firm works on domestic and international projects from offices in 17 cities nationwide. A sampling of projects includes Portland International Airport, the Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles, a container terminal at the Port of Long Beach, Washington State University facilities and the Renaissance condo towers in San Diego. For more information, visit www.kpff.com From downtown high-rises to ski resorts to major airports, KPFF Consulting Engineers provides structural and civil engineering services for various project types domestically and internationally. With 20 offices nationwide, KPFF employs more than 950 people. The Portland office has over 150 staff members, with an award-winning portfolio that includes the New Columbia Residential Redevelopment, the Portland International Airport and the Nike Headquarters. Portland averages about 44 inches of rainfall a year, and the city government has strict regulations regarding stormwater treatment and detention. Furthermore, the city has additional regulations for low-impact development. |
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| Challenge
The firm was spending too much engineering time performing stormwater calculations, which really added up on major projects. Solution
With StormNET, engineers directly import designs from AutoCAD, quickly run multiple scenarios, and simultaneously evaluate stormwater conveyance and detention storage. Results
Engineers enhance the quality and accuracy of the completed stormwater system, while cutting engineering modeling time in half. |
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| For stormwater modeling, KPFF’s engineers previously used an inhouse application. However, on larger projects—those of at least four or five acres—the firm found the software lacked some key features to streamline the modeling process. In fact, it was on a 300-acre land development project that their engineers found they needed another approach. “Two or three years into the project, we realized it would have been much easier with more powerful modeling software,” said Faheem Jan, Design Engineer. Their stormwater team evaluated several stormwater modeling software products before selecting StormNET by BOSS International. The fully-dynamic hydrology and hydraulic software analyzes both simple and complex stormwater systems using a variety of hydrology methods and models, including water quality. | Back To Top | |
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| In particular, KPFF was attracted to the fact that their engineers could import AutoCAD® drawings directly into StormNET, and that the software was easy to use and affordable compared to other options. Today, KPFF’s Portland office uses StormNET on large-scale land development and site design projects. They directly import stormwater networks from Autodesk Land Desktop and Civil 3D into StormNET, eliminating the need to re-enter manhole and pipe data. | Back To Top | |
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| " StormNET reduces engineering modeling time
on projects by half. "
— Faheem Jan, Design Engineer, KPFF Consulting Engineers |
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| | | Using StormNET, KPFF can quickly develop sophisticated models, primarily with the Santa Barbara Unit Hydrograph (SBUH) hydrology method. If desired, they can also analyze their models using SWMM, TR-20, TR-55, Rational Method and others. With StormNET, Jan can now analyze stormwater pipe conveyance and detention pond facilities simultaneously, rather than having to run separate analysis models for each. The software clearly shows the stormwater network’s bottlenecks and problem areas, allowing the user to zoom in for a closer look at any specific part of the network—such as surcharging along a pipe profile. |
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| | | Based on municipal requirements, engineers can choose site-specific storm distributions with StormNET’s database of over 3,500 up-to-date rainfall recording stations across North America. And, they can set and easily change conveyance and detention parameters to see the impact of different combinations. Jan also finds that StormNET’s hydrodynamic routing capabilities allow him to size pipes more effectively, as compared to kinematic wave or steady-state methods, increasing the accuracy of the sizing. If he needs to change pipe sizes or dimensions of any other network element, the rest of the model automatically adjusts in response to the change—meaning he no longer needs to manually adjust other calculations along with the required change. Though KPFF’s Portland office has not yet taken advantage of StormNET’s water quality capabilities, they will prove important in meeting the City of Portland’s strict water quality requirements. StormNET accounts for any type of stormwater quality factors such as total suspended solids (TSS) and total maximum daily loads (TMDL), and can incorporate rain gardens, bioswales, and other stormwater best management practices (BMP) in its analysis.” |
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| When KPFF presents its designs to clients and municipalities, StormNET’s graphical capabilities allow the firm to prepare design drawings, engineering reports and client presentations quickly. “We can justify our calculations with multiple scenarios to the city reviewer,” Jan said. Jan also estimates that StormNET reduces engineering modeling time on projects by half. “For example, instead of maybe eight hours, it’s now only four,” he said. And, the bigger the project
is—the greater the time-savings. “On a large project, cutting half the time means we can get the project completed more quickly and efficiently,” Jan said. “Because we can run multiple scenarios easily, it definitely enhances the accuracy and quality of our projects.” | Back To Top | |
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