Seismic reliability-based design of water distribution networks using multi-objective harmony search algorithm

Abstract

In the last four decades, many studies have been conducted for least-cost and maximum-reliability design of water supply systems. Most models employed multi-objective genetic algorithm (e.g., non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm- II, NSGA-II) in order to explore trade-off relationship between the two objectives. This study proposes a reliability-based design model that minimizes total cost and maximizes seismic reliability. Here, seismic reliability is defined as the ratio of available demand to required water demand under earthquakes. Multi-objective Harmony Search Algorithm (MoHSA) is developed to efficiently search for the Pareto optimal solutions in the two objectives solution space and incorporated in the proposed reliability-based design model. The developed model is applied to a well-known benchmark network and the results are analyzed.