Hybrid Leakage Management for Water Network Using PSF Algorithm and Soft Computing Techniques

Reduction of leakages in water distribution system (WDS) is one of the major concerns for water industries. This paper presents a hybrid leakage reduction model using pressure management technique, performed by optimizing water storage level in the tank, along with optimized control and localization of pressure reducing valve (PRV) in water distribution system. Pattern Sequence-based Forecasting (PSF) algorithm is used for prediction of flow rate (demand) from the tank for next 48 h, to calibrate the future desire water storage level in the tank. A mathematical tank and pump simulation algorithm is proposed for optimization of water storage level in the tank. A modified reference pressure algorithm is proposed for efficient localization of pressure reducing valve. Multiobjective genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is used for finding out the optimized operational control setting of the pressure reducing valve for leakage minimization. The proposed algorithm leads to better leakage reduction of 20.81% in modified benchmark WDS, with a reduced number of the pressure reducing valves. Constraints such as maintaining lower hydraulic failure index (<0.01), emergency water storage, etc. is also considered. It can be concluded that the proposed hybrid leakage reduction technique provides efficient as well as cost-effective solution for leakage control.