Isolation Valve Placement Optimization of Water Distribution Networks to Reduce Vulnerability

Due to the growing pace of urbanization and the rapid expansion of the population, the utilities nowadays are facing a more challenging task than ever before, to maintain the functionality of their massive Water Distribution Networks. In this paper, three different techniques are presented for the maximization of network robustness against random pipe-bursts. This paper analyses the vulnerability of segments of WDNs from the viewpoint of the consumers that is the product of the failure rate and the relative demand loss. Topological parameters could approximate the vulnerability. During the investigation, 27 real-life WDNs were analyzed from the region of Western Hungary. In two networks, a complete isolation valve replacement optimization is presented using these low-cost topological parameters as fitness functions. It is proved that by rearranging the isolation valves of the WDN, using a standard genetic algorithm and a fast-evaluated fitness function, the nature of the vulnerability distribution can be changed to a more favorable one. This means that it is possible to increase the robustness of a WDN even without using a calibrated hydraulic model; since these topological parameters can be extracted from simple databases.