Abstract
This paper aims to assess the impact of partitioning on optimal installation of control valves for leakage minimization in water distribution networks (WDNs). The methodology used includes two main elements. The first element is a deterministic algorithm operating through the sequential addition of control valves, producing a Pareto front of optimal solutions in the trade-off between number of control valves installed and daily leakage volume, to be both minimized. The second element is a WDN partitioning algorithm based on the minimization of the transport function, for the partitioning of the WDN into a number of partitions equal to the number of WDN sources. The methodology is applied to two Italian WDNs with different characteristics. Due to variations in flow distribution induced by the partitioning, the valve locations optimally selected in the partitioned WDN prove slightly different from those in the unpartitioned WDN. Furthermore, the number of control valves being the same, better leakage reduction effects (up to 8%) are obtained in the partitioned WDN.
Highlights
Leakage from water distribution networks (WDNs) has various undesired effects [1,2], starting from the waste of potable water and including: Waste of energy used to pump and treat water that does not reach customers. Potential deterioration of small breaks to pipe bursts. Potential intrusion of pollutants through pipe breaks when negative pressure occurs.To mitigate these effects, water utilities have started implementing practices to attenuate leakage, including active leakage detection, maintenance of deteriorated pipes, and management of service pressure
This paper aims to assess the impact of partitioning on optimal installation of control valves for leakage minimization in water distribution networks (WDNs)
Application of the Sequential Addition Algorithm to the Unpartitioned WDN The algorithm for the sequential addition of control valves was applied to the unpartitioned WDN, taking hdes = 20 m as the minimum pressure head constraint at the generic demanding node
Summary
To mitigate these effects, water utilities have started implementing practices to attenuate leakage, including active leakage detection, maintenance of deteriorated pipes, and management of service pressure. The optimal location/regulation of pressure-reducing devices, with a focus on control valves, has been instead studied since the 1990s. The first works, i.e., [4,5], only addressed the issue of the optimal regulation of control valves, taking device locations as pre-assigned. To tackle this issue, the works [4,5] made use of iterated linear and sequential quadratic programming, respectively, to optimize valve settings at various time slots in the day with the aim to minimize the total daily leakage volume. Strict satisfaction of targeted pressure requirements is enforced in [4], while minor violations are admitted in [5]
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