DRINKING WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM MODELLING - AN APPROACH TO SKELETONIZATION

An optimisation based approach to simplification of a network model of pressurized drinking water distribution systems (DWDS), called skeletonization, has been proposed. DWDS simulation has been improved considerably during the last decades. There are two major aspects in modelling, monitoring and control of DWDS: quantity (water hydraulics) and quality. In the following paper the modelling of the water hydraulics in DWDS is considered. There is a need to build a simplified model of the drinking water network that preserves relation between flows and pressures in the main pipes and contains elements essentials for control - tanks, pumps, valves or others. The degree of simplification should be a compromise between needed model's accuracy and computational efficiency of the monitoring and control algorithms. Different approaches are proposed for DWDS model simplification. In the proposed method some parts of the network structure remain unchanged and the others are replaced by a simple radial structure. Parameters of the radial structure are calculated by solving dedicated optimisation problem. The simplification results based on the proposed method are illustrated by simulation case study for physical drinking-water distribution system and a comparison with the result obtained based on common sense method are presented.