Optimal power use surface for design of water distribution systems

This paper intends to bring forward a hydraulic based Water Distribution System (WDS) design methodology named Optimal Power Use Surface (OPUS). Its objective is to reach least-cost designs, executing a reduced number of iterations, and focusing on the setting-up of efficient ways in which energy is dissipated and flow is distributed. For its validation, the proposed algorithm was tested on three well known benchmark networks, frequently reported in the literature: Two-Loop, Hanoi and Balerma. When compared to results obtained through other methodologies, OPUS stands out for allowing designs with constructive costs very similar to those obtained in previous works but requiring a number of iterations several orders of magnitude bellow, especially for real-size networks. The methodology proved that following hydraulic principles is an excellent choice to design WDS and also provides an alternative path to the tiresome search process undertaken by metaheuristics.