Water distribution network simulation by optimization approaches

When a fire-flow condition occurs and a nodal demand is excessive or when a pipe breaks, a water distribution system (WDS) may temporarily become deficient and unable to satisfy all nodal demands. Thus, estimation of the influences of failure conditions on the network is needed. A method for analyzing the hydraulic condition of the network in such a situation is proposed. The method, which is constructed based on the amount of supply on each consumption node, is called node flow analysis (NFA). Given the limitations of the NFA method proposed earlier for determining optimal solutions, such as inflexibility of the approach toward more complicated problems and its time-consuming process, this paper presents the honey-bee mating optimization (HBMO) algorithm for maximizing the total supply of the Two-loop and Hanoi water distribution networks (WDNs) under a failure condition. The proposed method is much faster and simpler to use than the NFA method. Consequently, obtained results confirm the higher accuracy of the proposed method to conditions of WDNs under local pipe breakage. In addition, results make one aware of the effects of each pipe breakage on consumption nodes and in the entire network under two scenarios for maximizing total supply in the network.