Stochastic approach for performance evaluation regarding water distribution systems

A traditional procedure for performance evaluation of systems is to test approaches on one or more case studies. However, it is well known that the investigation of real case studies is a tedious task. Moreover, due to the limited amount of case studies available it is not certain that all aspects of a problem can be covered in such procedure. With increasing computer power an alternative methodology has emerged, that is the investigation of a multitude of virtual case studies by means of a stochastic consideration of the overall performance. Within the frame of this approach we develop here a modular design system (MDS) for water distribution systems (WDSs). With the algorithmic application of such a MDS it is possible to create a variety of different WDSs. As an example of stochastic performance evaluation the impact of pipe breakages on WDSs is estimated applying a pressure driven performance indicator. This performance indicator is evaluated stochastically. Likewise the performance evaluation of a variety of WDSs is also performed stochastically. Cumulative distribution function, histogram and other statistical properties of 2,280×1,000 performance results of the different WDSs are calculated to highlight the applicability of the introduced stochastic approach.