Water
March 19, 2025 / 4 minute read
Designing Stormwater Solutions for Tomorrow's Storms
Written by Chris Stoneburg, Director of Product Design
Over the last few years, there has been an increase in the frequency and intensity of storms, which is producing higher volumes of stormwater. This is putting a strain on the country’s existing stormwater management infrastructure, causing increased flooding, hazards to life and property, and causing pollutants to enter our streams, rivers and lakes.
At Advanced Drainage Systems, we are very focused on protecting communities, strengthening collaboration with our customers and moving our industry forward. To do this we need to understand what this higher volume of stormwater actually means for our products and the stormwater management infrastructure across the country.
This understanding and insight are what enables us to continue to provide advanced stormwater solutions that not only manage water and protect our communities today but also meet the challenges of tomorrow’s storms and changes in climate.
This is one of the main reasons we built the ADS Engineering and Technology Center near our company’s headquarters in Hilliard, Ohio. This impressive $65 million, 110,000-square-foot research and testing facility is the largest stormwater engineering center in the world.
The facility is designed to enable our team of engineers, scientists and technicians to explore new opportunities for collaboration and innovation in how we design, validate and develop products, materials and manufacturing technologies to meet the stormwater management needs of our customers and communities.
The magnitude of the investment and the size of the structure make the entire facility best-in-class. As the team lead for the transition and startup of the Engineering and Technology Center, I have gained a deep understanding of how this facility will enable us to continue to drive innovation and new product design across the business.
For me, one of the most exciting parts of the facility is the state-of-the-art hydraulics lab. The lab features a 90,000-gallon, closed-loop recyclable water system allowing ADS to replicate real-world conditions by sending water through products under scenarios and various conditions that the company can alter and control.
Just like you are not able to develop vehicles like cars, airplanes and spacecraft without a wind tunnel, you cannot effectively design advanced stormwater solutions without a lot of water. The system allows us to model different storm events and water flow patterns to better understand how water flows through our products.
Through the use of fluid dynamics principles, we can evaluate the efficiency and performance of our existing solutions, as well as gain valuable insight into potential enhancements and improvements we should consider. It enables us to do the work to show our customers the value that our products provide as part of their stormwater management infrastructure. It shows that we are making the investment to produce the best solutions to meet our customers’ needs.
The possibilities are wide open. We can change several variables within the hydraulics lab, including flow rate and rainfall volume, to better represent what are customers are seeing in real-world situations. We can also make changes in elevation and head entry into different products to mirror how land topography differs dramatically across the U.S.
To reflect a cold Northeastern winter rain and a warmer South Florida storm, we are able to moderate the temperature of the water. We can even add suspended solid contaminants to the water to see how well our products remove contaminants out of the stormwater. And since the system is closed-loop, we are introducing the sediment, removing it and reusing the fresh water without any waste.
It has been really energizing to see that our customers are just as excited about the hydraulics lab as we are. It is sparking valuable conversations and allowing them to engage with our team in new and meaningful ways.
Most importantly, it offers a “what if” ability you often do not get with projects in the field. When customers visit the controlled environment of the hydraulics lab, they are asking our team questions like “What if we did this?”, “what if we use this configuration or solution instead?”, and “what if we experience this type of event? what does that look like?” We can then take those questions and play out various scenarios to provide answers and insight.
ADS is committed to protecting and managing water, the world’s most precious resource, by providing sustainable water management solutions that safeguard the environment and build resilient communities. Our new Engineering and Technology Center and hydraulics lab are quickly becoming invaluable tools to help drive that commitment and evolve this country’s stormwater management infrastructure.