Management of Water Distribution Systems in PDA Condition with Isolation Valves

Abstract: The management of Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) is related with the possibility to have a reliable system. When in a network a pipe failure occurs and it is necessary to isolate a zone, could happen that some nodes do not guarantee the service for the users due inadequate heads. In this conditions a Pressure Driven Analysis (PDA) is the correct approach to evaluate the network behavior. This model is more appropriate than the Demand Driven Analysis (DDA) one. In this case, it is important to identify a subset of isolation valves to limit disrupting services in the network. For a real network, additional valves must be added to existing ones. In this paper a new methodology analysis is proposed: it defines an objective function (FO) to furnish a measure of the system correct functioning. The network analysis using the FO helps to choose the optimal number of additional valves to obtain an adequate system control. In emergency conditions, the FO takes into account the new network topology obtained excluding the zone where the broken pipe is located. FO values depend on the demand deficit caused by the head decrement in the network nodes for each pipe burst considered. The results obtained for a case study confirm the methodology efficiency.