Pressure management of the water distribution network of Javanroud city by determining the optimal location and setting of pressure relief valves

Pressure management and reduction of high pressures are necessary to reduce leakage and extend the life of water distribution network equipment. There is a need for a benchmark and indicator to compare the distribution network pressure management. Investigation of the presented indicators shows that the reliability index is a suitable criterion for evaluating pressure management. In this research, using optimization methods, pressure reducing valves and changing the diameter of the pipe, the possibility of increasing the reliability of Javanrood water distribution network was investigated. In this study, using single-objective and two-objective optimization algorithms, the position and settings of pressure relief valves were determined for this network. In the single-objective Harmony Search algorithm, network reliability was considered, and in the two-objective algorithm, pressure and velocity reliability were considered as the objective functions. The results showed that the single-objective algorithm has increased the reliability of the network by 17% and the two-objective algorithm by 14% compared to the current situation. Examining the changes of network reliability in 24 hours of the day shows that the network reliability values obtained from the two-objective algorithm had very little fluctuations compared to the single-objective algorithm. In other words, the reliability of the network has been almost constant throughout the day.