New indices for reliability assessment of water distribution networks

Abstract

This paper presents new indices to evaluate the reliability of water distribution networks (WDNs) usable in the design, planning and management of these networks. Since the pressure-driven analysis (PDA) of WDNs produces more accurate results than the demand-driven analysis, the new indices are proposed based on the PDA. In the proposed measures, nodal pressures, nodal available discharges and the energy loss per unit length of pipes are considered as the main factors influencing the reliability of WDNs. The introduced network reliability index is a combination of two indices named total nodal reliability and total pipe reliability. These indices are equal to the weighted average of all of the nodal and pipe reliabilities, respectively. A sample network is used to evaluate the new proposed index and some of the available indices and to compare their efficiencies in assessing the reliability of WDNs. The results show that the new proposed index is more efficient and outperforms the others. The introduced index is normalized and is independent of the WDN size. This index considers the qualitative aspects of WDNs besides the hydraulic aspects in evaluating reliability.