Use of Hydraulic Criteria to Increase the Efficiency of Optimization Methods for Valve-Setting Problems in Water Distribution Systems

Abstract

In a water distribution system—WDS, every pipe is considered as a potential candidate to locate a valve, regarding that the usage of these accessories are widely applied with different purposes within water supply systems. Framed in the scope of this research, it has been proposed as a previous stage of the optimization process, the implementation of different techniques that leads to the reduction of the solution space based on the hydraulic knowledge of the network, seeking to obtain results of high quality in an efficient way. Because of this, it was decided to analyze the effect of the reduction of the solution space associated with the optimal valve location problem in a WDS, using three hydraulic criteria based on the operational knowledge of the network, obtaining satisfactory results without losing the quality of the reached solution.