Your civil engineering firm has been contracted to lay water pipes for two stree

Question

Your civil engineering firm has been contracted to lay water pipes for two streets in a new neighborhood. The pipes (that will connect to the city's main intersection) must be able to provide 1910 gallons of water per minute to the new homes being built.

The design calls for two safety valves that are each known to leak 0.60% of the water passing through them.

How many gallons per minute must the water department provide at the main intersection (before entering your two pipes)? (Keep one decimal place in your answer)

Explanation / Answer

Considering that the two safety values are connected in series before the the city's main intersection is connected to the water pipes for two streets.

This is a reliability problem involving two components (safety valves in this case) connected in parallel each having a reliability equal to 1 - 0.6% = 0.994

Overall system reliability (or % of water reaching the new homes being built) = 0.994*0.994 = 0.988036

Therefore, gallons per minute the water department must provide at the main intersection

= 1910/0.988036

= 1933.13 gallons per minute

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