A potable water network hydraulic analysis is presented in this paper. A mathematical model was developed, the model treats looped network. A computer program is developed in order to facilitate water distribution system design, which satisfies all constraints including pipe diameter and nodal pressure.
An optimization technique is developed in order to evaluate the optimum network configuration and cost, the parameters are pipe diameter, flow rate, corresponding pressure and hydraulic losses. A non-linear technique was adopted in the solution. The model uses the sequential unconstrained minimization technique (SUMT) of Fiacco and McCormick (1964) to solve the optimal design of network. The adopted optimization technique decreases the required number of design iterations which for example may reach 1.48 billion iterations for a network with 8 pipes and a set of 14 available commercial pipes.
The initially assumed pipe diameters are successively adjusted to suit the existing standard commercial pipe diameters. The technique was applied on a simple case study of gravity-fed network.
The objective of the present investigation is to present a practical tool to help in the optimization of water distribution system, design and operation.
