Hydraulic System Reliability of Water Distribution Networks

A water distribution network (WDN) should accommodate the abnormal conditions caused by failures. These types of failures can be classified into two groups; mechanical failures and hydraulic failures. Mechanical failure is caused due to malfunctioning of the network elements such as pipe breakage. Hydraulic failure on the other hand considers system failure due to distributed flow and pressure head which are inadequate at one or more demand points. This study deals with the calculation of the hydraulic system reliability of an existing WDN. A case study was carried out on a part of Ankara (Turkey) WDN. The daily demand curves for the area were drawn using the data that were taken from SCADA of the water utility. The friction coefficients of the pipes and storage tank water elevation were taken as other uncertainty parameters. The sensitivity analysis for the effects of system characteristics and model assumptions were carried out. Results of this study were helpful to see the effects of different parameters on the hydraulic reliability calculations and for assessment of the methods for improving the reliability for the network.