A fast approach for multiobjective design of water distribution networks under demand uncertainty

Abstract

Water distribution system (WDS) design has received much attention lately from the point of view of uncertainties. Designers are generally interested in the Pareto optimal cost-robustness trade off curve. This paper aims to find a solution to the multiobjective problem in a computationally time-efficient way in comparison to previous methods from the literature. A parameter u, which is linked to the system robustness through a derived analytic formula, is introduced. The robustness of the WDS can be approximated by one single model simulation; consequently a large amount of computational time is saved compared to using a sampling-based technique. The application of the method to the New York tunnels problem demonstrates that, although the resulting design is conservative on cost, the proposed method is very computationally efficient. This is of importance when high computational cost is the major obstacle for some real-world problems. © IWA Publishing 2011.