Optimal cost design of water distribution networks using a decomposition approach

Abstract

Water distribution network decomposition, which is an engineering approach, is adopted to increase the efficiency of obtaining the optimal cost design of a water distribution network using an optimization algorithm. This study applied the source tracing tool in EPANET, which is a hydraulic and water quality analysis model, to the decomposition of a network to improve the efficiency of the optimal design process. The proposed approach was tested by carrying out the optimal cost design of two water distribution networks, and the results were compared with other optimal cost designs derived from previously proposed optimization algorithms. The proposed decomposition approach using the source tracing technique enables the efficient decomposition of an actual large-scale network, and the results can be combined with the optimal cost design process using an optimization algorithm. This proves that the final design in this study is better than those obtained with other previously proposed optimization algorithms.

Keywords:

• water distribution network
• optimal cost design
• decomposition approach
• source tracing
• harmony search algorithm

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Ali Sadollah http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7782-4126

Joong Hoon Kim http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3729-7560

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korean (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIP) [NRF-2013R1A2A1A01013886].