Title:
Operational Control Strategies for Wastewater Treatment Plants During Overflow Events in Saudi Arabia

Authors:
I. M. Elshaigy, G.A. Gasmelseed, I.H. Elamin, Z. A. Hamad, Sudan

Abstract:

Wastewater treatment plants are extremely important for people’s health and for water resource management, especially in fast-growing cities. These systems are facing more and more problems such as unexpected hydraulic loads, operational problems and environmental changes. These issues can reduce the effectiveness of treatment and cause spills and uncontrolled discharges. These challenges require improved monitoring and control systems that can respond to changing conditions while maintaining safe and stable operation. The main aim of the research is to study the performance of various control structures in maintaining the system stability in uncertain conditions and under unexpected flow changes. The present study takes into account the modeling and control of wastewater treatment processes with the different control frameworks and simulation scenarios that are closely representative of the real-world operating conditions described in the study. The results showed that advanced control strategies, especially robust control strategies, are more effective than conventional ones in handling overflow situations. The proposed control systems are more stable, faster and better at disturbance rejection in the presence of uncertain and varying hydraulic loads. This indicates their effectiveness in actual wastewater treatment conditions in Saudi Arabia.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.51505/ijaemr.2026.11502