mohammadreza shekofteh

One of the advantages of designing water distribution networks (WDNs) as a district metered areas (DMAs) is to identify the leakage in each area by controlling the input and output flow, which of course requires the separating areas and installation of flowmeters between the interconnect pipes of areas. Considering that the most existing WDNs have been expanded traditionally and not as DMA, turning them into DMAs would require huge costs and might not be even practical in some networks. In this paper, a theoretical idea of virtual DMA is presented to identify the leakage in each areas. The innovation of this paper is the ability to transform networks into DMAs using a combination of the graph theory and artificial neural network to find leaks without using a flowmeter. The proposed method, in addition to reducing costs for the flowmeters, also increases the speed of detection of leakage areas. In addition, there is no need to specify the number of leakage nodes before the leak operation begins. The proposed method has been applied for the Balerma WDN in Spain with 443 nodes and 454 pipes for two, three and four simultaneous leaks. The results of this paper show that the proposed theory in this method is able to detect leakage in each area, and this method can determine the number of optimal virtual DMA for each network. In all examples, the leakage area was correctly predicted and the maximum leakage error was about 6.5%.

For better utilization of water distribution networks (WDNs), it is recommended that the existing networks be converted into Distinct Metered Areas (DMAs). Due to the complexity of the old networks, the conversion of these networks into DMA is a costly and sensitive issue. In this paper, a model has been developed to optimize implementation of the old networks into DMA by using the graph theory and water distribution system modeling software (EPANET), while the minimum required standard pressure is met and the number of linked pipes between the proposed areas is minimum. The minimum number of linked pipes will minimize the cost of the needed flowmeters. The developed model has been successfully applied for Poulakis WDN with 30 nodes and 50 pipes in different statuses and for the actual Bushehr WDN with about 3740 nodes and 3980 pipes. The output result shows that the developed model, in a satisfactory way, converts water distribution networks into DMAs with respect to the hydraulic constrainsts.