Combining inverse solution method and meta-heuristic algorithm to calculate the amount and location of leaks in water distribution networks

In addition to wasting water and energy, leaks in water distribution networks also cause social and environmental problems. So it is important to try to save as much as possible. In leaks made by meta-heuristic methods, the decision variables are leak node number and flow leakage. In this study, a method is presented with the combination of inverse solution of flow equations and meta-heuristic algorithm. In the proposed method, only the leakage node number is considered as the decision variable in the Harmony search method, and the leakage amount is calculated using the inverse solution of continuity and energy equations. In addition to a number of measurements for the objective function of the meta-heuristic algorithm, it is necessary to measure pressure nodes and discharge pipes as many as leakage nodes for the hydraulic model. The results in the two hypothetical networks show that this method determines and calculates the position and amount of leaks with high accuracy, even if the leakage amount is small. If there is an error in measuring the node pressure, the position and amount of leaks are calculated accurately by increasing the nodes of the objective function.