Reliability analysis of water distribution systems

Reliability is an integral part of all decisions regarding water distribution system layout, design, operation and maintenance. Providing reliability for water distribution systems is complicated due to the many factors that affect reliability, the inherent nonlinear behavior of the system and its consumers, and due to the different conflicting objectives facing a water distribution system utility. Although the reliability of water distribution systems has received considerable attention over the last two decades, there is still no common, acceptable, reliability measure or reliability assessment methodology. This paper describes the classification and reliability analysis methodologies of water distribution systems and compares two previously published algorithms for reliability evaluation of water distribution systems: a tailor-made ‘lumped supply–lumped demand’ approach used most commonly in regional water distribution systems and a general stochastic (Monte Carlo) framework suitable for any generic network.