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[thatkid]

Hey there. So I've decided I'm going to make a single waterfall in the dead center of fortress dining hall.

This dining hall is accessed by a single hallway leading from the trade depot, upon exiting the hallway you find yourself in a 2x2 walkway that is 21 in width on the top, and 21 in length on the sides. Ramps from this walkway lead down to the main dining room which is 16x16 including the ramps by the walls. Above the 2x2 walkway is a 21x21 overhead of empty space. Above that is the surface.
There is nothing at all below the dining hall, so I have free room to dig around there. My masons should be able to quickly construct anything in the space above.

I have no access to a river or running water, but I have plenty of murky pools and buckets with which to fill my system for the first, and hopefully only (provided nothing goes wrong), time. My intent is to create a waterfall that falls through the dead center of my dining hall onto a grate, the water is then recycled beneath the dining hall, back up through a system of plumbing, and then obviously back into the open air above the dining hall so that it may continue the cycle all over again.

How do I accomplish this in the first place? What sort of pump system should I use?
And also, last time I tried to construct a water fall, the water in question rarely landed where it was supposed to. How do I ensure that it goes where it should without accidentally flooding the area?

Spoiler: Images (click to show/hide)

Note that I did try to search for this information, but I couldn't find anything of value. Everything I did find was the sources I used when I last tried this, and it obviously resulted in a failure or I wouldn't have to ask here.

[Putnam]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Water_reactor#Perpetual_motion

>_>

[thatkid]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Water_reactor#Perpetual_motion

>_>

This only really solves the problem of creating enough power to keep the waterfall in operation. I still need an efficient way to elevate the water, as well as a means to keep the water within the system while it's falling as opposed to all over my dining hall floor.

[Lagslayer]

Start the pumps manually, then switch over to automatic once it gets started.

[Quietust]

What you want is a mist generator - they never go dry, and they make your dwarves nice and happy.

[Khenal]

If you truly want a waterfall and not a simple mist generator, you'll need a decent sized landing area for the water.  I'd suggest a 3x3 set of grates with the main water spout a single square above and centered.  In my experience, water tends to spread a bit when if falls.  A small basin connected to a pump stack to take the water back up, along with a water wheel should get you what you want.

Hmm, I'm not sure if a 3x3 grate can be built, I rarely play with them.

[VonCede]

Something like this?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sideview


Dig the reservoir and install the floodgate.
Link the floodgate to lever and test that it works.
Dig out to way to water source. Remember to use at least one diagonal to depressurize the water!
Fill the reservoir and close the floodgate.
Start pump stack.
Enjoy the show and happiness generating mist.

Grate on the dining room floor is optional if you want to prevent Fun.

Space between reservoir and dining room is optional, I call it mud prevention space...

Sometimes if reservoir is large, water can't flow fast enough (to drainage or to the pumps) and water fall can spill a bit over. Nothing to worry about but it will cause muddied floor and if you have breached the caves, moss and fungus.

For power, you can put waterwheel on the flow going to dining room. But then you need to start pump stack using  dorf power.

[Rastaan]

Something like this?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sideview


Dig the reservoir and install the floodgate.
Link the floodgate to lever and test that it works.
Dig out to way to water source. Remember to use at least one diagonal to depressurize the water!
Fill the reservoir and close the floodgate.
Start pump stack.
Enjoy the show and happiness generating mist.

Grate on the dining room floor is optional if you want to prevent Fun.

Space between reservoir and dining room is optional, I call it mud prevention space...

Sometimes if reservoir is large, water can't flow fast enough (to drainage or to the pumps) and water fall can spill a bit over. Nothing to worry about but it will cause muddied floor and if you have breached the caves, moss and fungus.

For power, you can put waterwheel on the flow going to dining room. But then you need to start pump stack using  dorf power.

Perhaps you could just pit/pond the grates in the dining hall and have the dwarves fill it up from there instead? That would remove the need to have the dangerous opening on the lower level.

[Graebeard]

I'd check out this link on water movement to see if it helps explain what went wrong last time.  The flowchart (ha!) is particularly helpful.

Remember, pumps work really fast.  If the topmost pump has a large supply of water it'll pump a lot of it out before the water has any time to fall.  In my experience, a pump with access to only enough water to intermittently drop any tiles will drop one tile of water straight down without any spread at all.

I had a big reservoir of 2/7 and 1/7 water that I was trying to empty.  Since pumps only pull water when there's 2/7 or more water in the input tile, each bit of water that got sucked up had plenty of time to fall a level or two before the next was added on top.  Each tile fell over 30 levels without spreading out at all.

I'd try to do something like what VonCededescribes, but try to regulate how much water the pump system takes up.  Maybe by making the distance from the waterfall to the pump uptake long enough to delay re-uptake.

You could also try making a "drip" system up top.  Have the reservoir as full as you want and as close to the main stack as you want, but at the top have a reservoir of water that you use diagonals to depressurize.  This depressurized flow can run straight to the top of your waterfall, and you'll never have to worry about a pump spamming too much water!

[Starver]

Perhaps you could just pit/pond the grates in the dining hall and have the dwarves fill it up from there instead? That would remove the need to have the dangerous opening on the lower level.

IME (although I don't do this sort of thing often enough to be completely sure) you may have difficult with bucket-chain filling the underside without evaporation.

Perhaps something (converted from a "dig out" version that I've used in the past) with floodgates, like so...

Code: [Select]

#                                      # #
#                                      #^#
#__________________ ___________________#|#
###################_X_X__X____X________X_#

Fill the open-topped 1-tile pond to 7/7ths, then remotely open the floodgate attached to it.
7/7ths of water spreads into 2..3/7ths of water up until the second floodgate and can be filled up to 7/7ths.
Open that next floodgate, and 3x7/7ths spreads into 6x[3..4]/7ths (you could make it further, or open sooner, of course).
Continue until you're abutting the last floodgate, beyond which is the uptake point for the (simplified in this diagram) pump-stack.

I'm a little worried that the pumpstack will actually drain enough water out of the end to encourage evaporation, so it may need topping up (might be doable while the waterfall is in motion, with grate protection against bucket-dwarfs being swept in), but otherwise it should work.

Having a separately filled cistern off to one side (as per the "Water Input" part on that image) is possibly a little better, in that you can keep that topped up from whatever water source you want, and can engineer enough fullness beforehand and afterwards.

You can't build a 3x3 grid of grates because of the central one not being supported, but you could have the central spot still unmined (not a floating floor, but one on top of an unmined lower part).  Also, I'd go a bit more than 3x3, for safety's sake, and perhaps go with the following aesthetic pattern:

Code: [Select]

+++++++
+#####+
+##+##+
+#+#+#+
+##+##+
+#####+
+++++++
# = grate, + = floor.

All the grates are supported, assuming the 'diamond four' floors are over unmined tiles (or, of course, supports... hang on, can a central grate be built on/immediately to the side of a support?  ...that might also work!  Try supports below where the floors are indicated, then grate the whole thing over...).  But you'd not have the same freedom to "volume-double" the watercourse while you're filling, without some very particular changes to that plan (water being filled from one side, eventually to lead into the collection bowl, or the central grated area funelling down into a Z-2 water-conduit).


This all needs experimenting with, but my current fort isn't conducive to that kind of meddling right now (other design pressures) and starting up a new one/subverting a different old one will take some time, so perhaps someone will be able to confirm/deny some of my suppositions.

(Graebeard's ninja reply also rings true, I suppose I'm used to "full water" systems.  And my "problems" look suspiciously like  Graebeard's "solutions", when looked at from his POV. )

[Lagslayer]

OH! Don't forget to make constructed floors over the plumbing system. If you breach the caverns, a tree could otherwise clog it up.