scholarly journals Sensitivity of algorithm parameters and objective function scaling in multi-objective optimisation of water distribution systems

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 891-916 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Mala-Jetmarova ◽  
Andrew Barton ◽  
Adil Bagirov

This paper presents an extensive analysis of the sensitivity of multi-objective algorithm parameters and objective function scaling tested on a large number of parameter setting combinations for a water distribution system optimisation problem. The optimisation model comprises two operational objectives minimised concurrently, the pump energy costs and deviations of constituent concentrations as a water quality measure. This optimisation model is applied to a regional non-drinking water distribution system, and solved using the optimisation software GANetXL incorporating the NSGA-II linked with the network analysis software EPANet. The sensitivity analysis employs a set of performance metrics, which were designed to capture the overall quality of the computed Pareto fronts. The performance and sensitivity of NSGA-II parameters using those metrics is evaluated. The results demonstrate that NSGA-II is sensitive to different parameter settings, and unlike in the single-objective problems, a range of parameter setting combinations appears to be required to reach a Pareto front of optimal solutions. Additionally, inadequately scaled objective functions cause the NSGA-II bias towards the second objective. Lastly, the methodology for performance and sensitivity analysis may be used for calibration of algorithm parameters.

Author(s):  
Dhafar Al-Ani ◽  
Saeid Habibi

As time goes on, more and more operating-modes based on changing demand profiles will be compiled to enrich the range of feasible solutions for a water distribution system. This implies the conservation of energy consumed by a water pumping station and improves the ability for energy optimization. Another important goal was improving safety, reliability, and maintenance cost. In this paper, three important goals were addressed: cost-effectives, safety, and self-sustainability operations of water distribution systems. In this work, the objective functions to optimize were total electrical energy cost, maintenance costs, and reservoir water level variation while preserving the service provided to water clients. To accomplish these goals, an effective Energy Optimization Strategy (EOS) that manages trade-off among operational cost, system safety, and reliability was proposed. Moreover, the EOS aims at improving the operating conditions (i.e., pumping schedule) of an existing network system (i.e., with given capacities of tanks) and without physical changes in the infrastructure of the distribution systems. The new strategy consisted of a new Parallel Multi-objective Particle Swarm optimization with Adaptive Search-space Boundaries (P-MOPSO-ASB) and a modified EPANET. This has several advantages: obtaining a Pareto-front with solutions that are quantitatively equally good and providing the decision maker with the opportunity to qualitatively compare the solutions before their implementation into practice. The multi-objective optimization approach developed in this paper follows modern applications that combine an optimization algorithm with a network simulation model by using full hydraulic simulations and distributed demand models. The proposed EOS was successfully applied to a rural water distribution system, namely Saskatoon West. The results showed that a potential for considerable cost reductions in total energy cost was achieved (approximately % 7.5). Furthermore, the safety and the reliability of the system are preserved by using the new optimal pump schedules.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1163
Author(s):  
Mengning Qiu ◽  
Avi Ostfeld

Steady-state demand-driven water distribution system (WDS) solution is the bedrock for much research conducted in the field related to WDSs. WDSs are modeled using the Darcy–Weisbach equation with the Swamee–Jain equation. However, the Swamee–Jain equation approximates the Colebrook–White equation, errors of which are within 1% for ϵ/D∈[10−6,10−2] and Re∈[5000,108]. A formulation is presented for the solution of WDSs using the Colebrook–White equation. The correctness and efficacy of the head formulation have been demonstrated by applying it to six WDSs with the number of pipes ranges from 454 to 157,044 and the number of nodes ranges from 443 to 150,630. The addition of a physically and fundamentally more accurate WDS solution method can improve the quality of the results achieved in both academic research and industrial application, such as contamination source identification, water hammer analysis, WDS network calibration, sensor placement, and least-cost design and operation of WDSs.


2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. M. Aral ◽  
J. Guan ◽  
M. L. Maslia ◽  
J. B. Sautner ◽  
R. E. Gillig ◽  
...  

In a recently completed case-control epidemiological study, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) with support from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) documented an association between prenatal exposure to a specific contaminated community water source and leukaemia in female children. An important and necessary step in the epidemiological study was the reconstruction of the historical water supply strategy of the water distribution system serving the Dover Township area, New Jersey. The sensitivity of solutions to: (1) pressure and pattern factor constraints, (2) allowable operational extremes of water levels in the storage tanks, and (3) the non-uniqueness of the water supply solution are analysed in detail. The computational results show that the proposed approach yields satisfactory results for the complete set of monthly simulations and sensitivity analyses, providing a consistent approach for identifying the historical water supply strategy of the water distribution system. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the alternative strategy obtained from the revised objective function and the variation of constraints did not yield significantly different water supply characteristics. The overall analysis demonstrates that the progressive optimality genetic algorithm (POGA) developed to solve the optimization problem is an effective and efficient algorithm for the reconstruction of water supply strategies in water distribution systems.


2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.M. Siqueira ◽  
H.M.B. Oliveira ◽  
C. Santos ◽  
R.R.M. Paterson ◽  
N.B. Gusmão ◽  
...  

Filamentous fungi in drinking water can block water pipes, can cause organoleptic biodeterioration, and are a source of pathogens. There are increasing reports of the involvement of the organisms in biofilms. This present study describes a sampling device that can be inserted directly into pipes within water distribution systems, allowing biofilm formation in situ. Calcofluor White M2R staining and fluorescent in situ hybridization with morphological analyses using epifluorescent microscopy were used to analyse biofilms for filamentous fungi, permitting direct observation of the fungi. DAPI (4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) was applied to detect bacteria. Filamentous fungi were detected in biofilms after 6 months on coupons exposed to raw water, decanted water and at the entrance of the water distribution system. Algae, yeast, and bacteria were also observed. The role of filamentous fungi requires further investigations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 681-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Fiorini Morosini ◽  
O. Caruso ◽  
P. Veltri

Abstract The current paper reports on a case study investigating water distribution system management in emergency conditions when it is necessary to seal off a zone with isolation valves to allow repair. In these conditions, the pressure-driven analysis (PDA) is considered to be the most efficient approach for the analysis of a water distribution network (WDN), as it takes into account whether the head in a node is adequate to ensure service. The topics of this paper are innovative because, until now, previous approaches were based on the analysis of the network behaviour in normal conditions. In emergency conditions, it is possible to measure the reliable functioning of the system by defining an objective function (OF) that helps to choose the optimal number of additional valves in order to obtain adequate system control. The OF takes into account the new network topology by excluding the zone where the broken pipe is located. The results show that the solution did not improve significantly when the number of valves reached a threshold. The procedure applied to other real case studies seems to confirm the efficiency of the methodology even if further examination of other cases in different conditions is necessary.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young Choi ◽  
Joong Kim

This study proposes a multi-objective optimal design approach for water distribution systems, considering mechanical system redundancy under multiple pipe failure. Mechanical redundancy is applied to the system’s hydraulic ability, based on the pressure deficit between the pressure requirements under abnormal conditions. The developed design approach shows the relationships between multiple pipe failure states and system redundancy, for different numbers of pipe-failure conditions (e.g., first, second, third, …, tenth). Furthermore, to consider extreme demand modeling, the threshold of the demand quantity is investigated simultaneously with multiple pipe failure modeling. The design performance is evaluated using the mechanical redundancy deficit under extreme demand conditions. To verify the proposed design approach, an expanded version of the well-known benchmark network is used, configured as an ideal grid-shape, and the multi-objective harmony search algorithm is used as the optimal design approach, considering construction cost and system mechanical redundancy. This optimal design technique could be used to propose a standard for pipe failure, based on factors such as the number of broken pipes, during failure condition analysis for redundancy-based designs of water distribution systems.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bałut ◽  
Brodziak ◽  
Bylka ◽  
Zakrzewski

: On the maintenance task list of each water distribution system (WDS) operator, determination of the order of undertaken repairs seems quite a typical task. Characteristics of damages, their localization, and other factors that influence repair sequencing have a sound impact on the execution of such tasks. In the case of the most complex cases where numerous failures of different types occur at the very same time (i.e., due to earthquakes), there is a long list of selection criteria that have to be analyzed to deliver an objectively logical schedule for repair teams. In this article, authors attempt to find out if it is possible to define pipe rankings in having obtained the best factors for defined objective functions (criteria), making it feasible to deliver judicious repair sequencing. For the purposes of this paper, a survey has been carried out. Its conclusions made it possible to propose a method to create rankings of pipes and evaluate them using a selected multicriteria decision method: preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE). The work was carried out for five different disaster scenarios that had been supplied by ‘The Battle of Post-Disaster Response and Restoration’ organization committee. Obtained results might be further used to finetune this sequencing method of undertaken repairs, while conclusions could be useful to model similar events in WDS when required. This article is an extended paper based on the conference preprint presented at the 1st International Water Distribution Systems Analysis (WDSA)/International Computing & Control for the Water Industry (CCWI) Joint Conference in July 23–25, 2018 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 6221
Author(s):  
Jedrzej Bylka ◽  
Tomasz Mróz

The water supply system is one of the most important elements in a city. Currently, many cities struggle with a water deficit problem. Water is a commonly available resource and constitutes the majority of land cover; however, its quality, in many cases, makes it impossible to use as drinking water. To treat and distribute water, it is necessary to supply a certain amount of energy to the system. An important goal of water utility operators is to assess the energy efficiency of the processes and components. Energy assessments are usually limited to the calculation of energy dissipation (sometimes called “energy loss”). From a physical point of view, the formulation of “energy loss” is incorrect; energy in water transport systems is not consumed but only transformed (dissipated) into other, less usable forms. In the water supply process, the quality of energy—exergy (ability to convert into another form)—is consumed; hence, a new evaluation approach is needed. The motivation for this study was the fact that there are no tools for exergy evaluation of water distribution systems. A model of the exergy balances for a water distribution system was proposed, which was tested for the selected case studies of a water supply system and a water treatment station. The tool developed allows us to identify the places with the highest exergy destructions. In the analysed case studies, the highest exergy destruction results from excess pressure (3939 kWh in a water supply system and 1082 kWh in a water treatment plant). The exergy analysis is more accurate for assessing the system compared to the commonly used energy-based methods. The result can be used for assessing and planning water supply system modernisation.


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