A Hybrid Water Distribution Networks Design Optimization Method Based on a Search Space Reduction Approach and a Genetic Algorithm
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Author
Reca, Juan
Martínez, Juan
López, Rafael
Publisher
MDPIDate
2017Subject
Water distribution networkOptimization
Heuristics
Search space reduction
Genetic Algorithm
Hybrid method
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Show full item recordAbstract
This work presents a new approach to increase the efficiency of the heuristics methods
applied to the optimal design of water distribution systems. The approach is based on reducing the
search space by bounding the diameters that can be used for every network pipe. To reduce the search
space, two opposite extreme flow distribution scenarios are analyzed and velocity restrictions to the
pipe flow are then applied. The first scenario produces the most uniform flow distribution in the
network. The opposite scenario is represented by the network with the maximum flow accumulation.
Both extreme flow distributions are calculated by solving a quadratic programming problem, which
is a very robust and efficient procedure. This approach has been coupled to a Genetic Algorithm
(GA). The GA has an integer coding scheme and variable number of alleles depending on the number
of diameters comprised within the velocity restrictions. The methodology has been applied to several
benchmark networks and its performance has been compared to a classic GA formulation with a
non-bounded search space. It considerably reduced the search space and provided a much faster
and more accurate convergence than the GA formulation. This approach can also be coupled to
other metaheuristics.