Selection of Suitable Pipe Material for New Water Distribution Network Using Analytic Hierarchy Process – A Case Study of Athivilai Village of India

Abstract

This study was made to design a new water distribution network for the Athivilai village of Tamilnadu, India. The associated problems of the village are improper water supply for growing water requirements during the summer season. The cost, service life, and material type play an important role when designing a new network. In this study, the suitable pipe material is chosen by using Analytical Hierarchy Process. The criteria selected for Analytic Hierarchy Process include Cost, Service life, Ease of maintenance, Corrosion, Leakage, and Internal pressure. The results show that the Ductile Iron pipe ranks top position followed by High Density Polyethylene, Polyvinyl Chloride, and Galvanized iron. After selecting the pipe material, the design of water distribution network is done in EPANET 2.0 software. The results show that the diameter of pipes ranges from 40 mm to 250 mm. Since the corrosion of smaller diameter Ductile Iron pipes are faster, the High Density Polyethylene pipe which acquires the second rank can be used for diameters smaller than 80 mm. For pipes with a diameter greater than 80 mm, Ductile Iron pipes are used. Furthermore, since a continuous system of supply is designed, the pressure rises above 60 m during non peak hours which indicates that the pipes are constantly subjected to internal pressure. Both the selected pipes can withstand high internal pressure which confirms the results obtained by the Analytic hierarchy process are suitable.