Application of Differential Evolution (DE) Algorithm for Optimizing Water Distribution Networks (Case Study: Ismail Abad Pressurized Irrigation Network)

In this research, the differential evolution algorithm (DE) is used to optimize Ismail Abad water distribution network. This network is a pressurized network and includes 18 pipes and 19 nodes. Optimization of the network has been conducted by developing an optimization model based on the DE algorithm in MATLAB by establishing a dynamic connection with EPANET software for hydraulic calculation of the network. The developed model was run for decision variables including the scale factor (F), the crossover constant (Cr), initial population (N) and the number of generations (G) and their values for the best adeptness of DE algorithm were identified as 0.6, 0.5, 100 and 200, respectively. The optimal solution was compared with the classical empirical method and results showed that implementation cost of the designed network by the DE algorithm was 10.66% lower than that by the classical empirical method.