# EPANET: [TIMES]

[TIMES]

Purpose: Defines various time step parameters used in the simulation.

Formats:

DURATION | value (units)
HYDRAULIC TIMESTEP | value (units)
QUALITY TIMESTEP | value (units)
RULE TIMESTEP | value (units)
PATTERN TIMESTEP | value (units)
PATTERN START | value (units)
REPORT TIMESTEP | value (units)
REPORT START | value (units)
START CLOCKTIME | value (AM / PM)
STATISTIC | NONE / AVERAGED / MINIMUM / MAXIMUM / RANGE

Definitions:

DURATION is the duration of the simulation. Use 0 to run a single period snapshot analysis. The default is 0.

HYDRAULIC TIMESTEP determines how often a new hydraulic state of the network is computed. If greater than either the PATTERN or REPORT time step it will be automatically reduced. The default is 1 hour.

QUALITY TIMESTEP is the time step used to track changes in water quality throughout the network. The default is 1/10 of the hydraulic time step.

RULE TIMESTEP is the time step used to check for changes in system status due to activation of rule-based controls between hydraulic time steps. The default is 1/10 of the hydraulic time step.

PATTERN TIMESTEP is the interval between time periods in all time patterns. The default is 1 hour.

PATTERN START is the time offset at which all patterns will start. For example, a value of 6 hours would start the simulation with each pattern in the time period that corresponds to hour 6. The default is 0.

REPORT TIMESTEP sets the time interval between which output results are reported. The default is 1 hour.

REPORT START is the length of time into the simulation at which output results begin to be reported. The default is 0.

START CLOCKTIME is the time of day (e.g., 3:00 PM) at which the simulation begins. The default is 12:00 AM midnight.

STATISTIC determines what kind of statistical post-processing should be done on the time series of simulation results generated. AVERAGED reports a set of time-averaged results, MINIMUM reports only the minimum values, MAXIMUM the maximum values, and RANGE reports the difference between the minimum and maximum values. NONE reports the full time series for all quantities for all nodes and links and is the default.

Remarks:

1. Units can be SECONDS (SEC), MINUTES (MIN), HOURS, or DAYS. The default is HOURS.
2. If no units are supplied, then time values can be expressed in either decimal hours or in hours:minutes notation.
3. All entries in the [TIMES] section are optional. Items offset by slashes (/) indicate allowable choices.

Example:

[TIMES]
DURATION 240 HOURS
QUALITY TIMESTEP 3 MIN
QUALITY TIMESTEP 0:03
REPORT START 120
START CLOCKTIME 6:00 AM