This study proposes a multi-objective optimal design approach for water distribution systems, considering mechanical system redundancy under multiple pipe failure. Mechanical redundancy is applied to the system’s hydraulic ability, based on the pressure deficit between the pressure requirements under abnormal conditions. The developed design approach shows the relationships between multiple pipe failure states and system redundancy, for different numbers of pipe-failure conditions (e.g., first, second, third, …, tenth). Furthermore, to consider extreme demand modeling, the threshold of the demand quantity is investigated simultaneously with multiple pipe failure modeling. The design performance is evaluated using the mechanical redundancy deficit under extreme demand conditions. To verify the proposed design approach, an expanded version of the well-known benchmark network is used, configured as an ideal grid-shape, and the multi-objective harmony search algorithm is used as the optimal design approach, considering construction cost and system mechanical redundancy. This optimal design technique could be used to propose a standard for pipe failure, based on factors such as the number of broken pipes, during failure condition analysis for redundancy-based designs of water distribution systems.
User-centred System Design Approach Applied on a Robotic Flexible Endoscope
