Chance Constrained Optimization of Booster Chlorination in Water Distribution Networks

Abstract

AbstractQuality of municipal water is sustained by addition of disinfectant, generally chlorine, to the water distribution network. Because of health problems, chlorine concentration in the network is limited between maximum and minimum limits. Carcinogenic disinfectant by‐products start to occur at high concentrations so it is desired to have minimum amount of chlorine without violating the limit. In addition to the health issues, minimum injection amount is favorable concerning cost. Hence, an optimization problem which covers all of these considerations should be modeled. However, there are uncertain factors as chlorine is reactive and decays both over time and space. Thus, probabilistic approach is necessary to obtain reliable and realistic results from the model. In this study, a linear programming model is developed for the chance constrained optimization of the water distribution network. The objective is to obtain minimum amount of injection mass subjected to maintaining more uniformly distributed chlorine concentrations within the limits, while considering the randomness of chlorine concentration by probability distributions. Network hydraulics and chlorine concentration are computed by the network simulation software, EPANET.