An Alternative Approach for Minimum Independent Loops Identification in Water Distribution Networks

In the management and design of water distribution network, the knowledge of the flows in pipes and pressures in nodes is indispensable. Such knowledge requires a prior analysis of the network topology to be used for equilibrium procedure. The incidence matrix linking pipes to loops is one of the main topological representations of networks necessary for the process. Even though different algorithms have been presented by several researchers, the question of the minimum independent loops, which effects computing complexity, still raises. Different approaches in the selection of these loops have been established. However, few have arrived to determine the minimum independent loops matrix. The aim of this paper is to present an alternative approach for determining the sparsest pipes/loops matrix possible using Matlab® and graph theory. The reliability of the proposed algorithm was tested and verified through a real test case. The performances of the algorithm were also compared to other recent methods available in literature in terms of the sparsity of the independent loops’ matrix.