A Study on the Optimal Pipe Design of Water Distribution Systems Using Multi-objective Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

Water supply system that provide safe water to customers should be designed to reduce construction cost and management cost. Pipe diameter is a key aspect of water distribution system since it affects design cost and friction loss. This study applied multi-objective optimization algorithm coupled with EPANET hydraulic solver for minimizing design cost and friction loss energy to water distribution system. Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-Ⅱ) was used as an optimization technique. The hydraulic results such as head loss and flow in the pipeline were obtained from EPANET program. The test bed was the Cheongna water distribution system in Incheon, Korea. The findings in this study provided Pareto front of minimizing design cost and friction loss energy with simultaneously satisfying the water demand and hydraulic pressure. This study suggests that NSGA-Ⅱ can be used to design optimal water distribution system that satisfy the multi-objective options.