Battle of Background Leakage Assessment for Water Networks (BBLAWN): An Incremental Savings Approach

The design problem is solved considering the methodology used by [1] in the previous WDSA Battle competition. In particular, engineering judgment defines the entire solution process such that no optimization algorithm was utilized beyond a simple root-finding algorithm for determining some PRV settings. Then the problem is formulated as a bi-objective optimization problem that maximizes the operational savings and minimizes the total capital costs - both relative to the baseline solution. Finally, the design is modified to remove previously selected decision variables with low incremental operational savings per unit of capital cost expenditures and then fine-tuned to ensure pressure and tank level constraints are exceeded by a comfortable margin (at least 5%).