Flow-based optimal system design of urban water transmission network under seismic conditions

Abstract

In this paper, an optimal system design for the seismic performance enhancement of a water transmission network was proposed. The main purpose of the optimal design is to maximize the system performance within a limited construction cost. The proposed model evaluates network performance through the spatially correlated seismic attenuation law, determination of the failure status of the network facility, and numerical modeling of water networks. For hydraulic simulation, a MATLAB computer code was developed to enable the EPANET program with pressure-driven analysis. To demonstrate the proposed model, an actual water transmission network of A-city, South Korea was adopted, and a water network map was constructed based on the geographic information system data. Numerical results showed that the optimized network model increased system serviceability and nodal serviceability by 9.9% and 11%, respectively, and the average nodal pressure of the network increased by 3.6 m compared to existing models. In addition, the result of the optimal pipeline design was utilized to compare the performance against interdependencies and the elapsed time of pipelines. The optimized network exhibited higher performance than the existing network, depending on the elapsed time and interdependence. Therefore, to maximize the performance of the water network, it is necessary to use optimized network design parameters according to the appropriate construction budget.