scholarly journals A Teaching Experiment Using a Serious Game for WDNs Sizing

10.29007/lvbt ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Laucelli ◽  
Luigi Berardi ◽  
Antonietta Simone ◽  
Orazio Giustolisi
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Teaching Experiment ◽  
Engineering Problem ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Serious Gaming ◽  
Minimum Capital ◽  
Life Problems

A new playful interface allowing a more intuitive understanding of real-life problems is the Serious Gaming, which combines video game and utility functions addressed to problems other than the mere entertainment. The use of Serious Gaming allows having fun while favoring the learning process related to specific technical fields. This paper presents the results of using Serious Gaming within a university classroom of 26 students to solve an engineering problem, i.e. the pipe sizing of several water distribution networks. It relates to five benchmark water distribution networks, and students were asked to find the optimal value of pipe diameters to match minimum capital cost of pipes and good average pressure. Therefore, the players/students can be seen as decision makers, from a real-life standpoint. The paper has multiple aims, such as investigating the gaming approach usefulness in consolidating/learning the main concepts of network hydraulics and bringing users closer to real-life complexity of engineering problems where different technical aspects must be considered at the same time.

scholarly journals Towards serious gaming for water distribution networks sizing: a teaching experiment

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele B. Laucelli ◽  
Luigi Berardi ◽  
Antonietta Simone ◽  
Orazio Giustolisi
Keyword(s):  
Water Distribution ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Teaching Experiment ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Serious Gaming ◽  
Life Problems ◽  
Optimal Value ◽  
Game Environment

Abstract Real-life engineering problems relate to different technical aspects to be considered at the same time. Traditional teaching techniques for engineering students (i.e., future decision-makers for such problems) sometimes need to be supplemented to convey this complexity, and thus innovative approaches are needed. A new and useful approach allowing a more intuitive understanding of real-life problems is serious gaming (SG), which combines a game environment and utility functions to address real problems. This paper describes a first attempt to use SG to help engineering students learn and deal with the complexities of designing water distribution networks given multiple objectives and uncertainty. This application of SG relates to five benchmark water distribution networks, and students were asked to find the optimal value of pipe diameters to minimize the capital cost of pipes. The results of the experiment show that students learn in less time how to design water distribution networks while enjoying the experience. Most students found the approach useful, claiming that the difficulty in approaching the pipe sizing problem decreased considerably as the practice of the game increases. The results of the experiment suggest that SG may have value in learning how to design other engineering systems.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Segment Graph of Water Distribution Networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Huzsvár ◽  
Richárd Wéber ◽  
Csaba János Hős
Keyword(s):  
Distribution System ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Complex Network Theory ◽  
Graph Properties ◽  
Quantitative Topology ◽  
The Impact

One of the basic infrastructures of every settlement is the water distribution system, which provides clean and potable water for both private houses, industrial consumers and institution establishments. The operational robustness and vulnerabilities of these networks is an essential issue, both for the quality of life and for the preservation of the environment. Even with frequent and careful maintenance, unintentional pipe bursts might occur, and during the reparation time, the damaged section must be isolated hydraulically from the main body of the water distribution network. Due to the size and complexity of these networks, it might not be trivial how to isolate the burst section, especially if one wishes to minimize the impact on the overall system. This paper presents an algorithmic method that is capable of creating isolation plans for real-life networks in a computationally efficient way, based on the graph properties of the network. Besides this segmentation plan, the topological behavior of the structural graph properties was analyzed with the help of the complex network theory to create a method for the quantitative topology based categorization of the water distribution networks.

scholarly journals Compressed sensing based optimal sensor placement for leak localization in water distribution networks

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1286-1295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Xie ◽  
Quan Zhou ◽  
Dibo Hou ◽  
Hongjian Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Compressed Sensing ◽  
Knapsack Problem ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Sensor Placement ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Mutual Coherence ◽  
Optimal Sensor Placement ◽  
Leak Localization

Abstract The performance of model-based leak detection and localization techniques heavily depends on the configuration of a limited number of sensors. This paper presents a sensor placement optimization strategy that guarantees sufficient diagnosability while satisfying the budget constraint. Based on the theory of compressed sensing, the leak localization problem could be transformed into acquiring the sparse leak-induced demands from the available measurements, and the average mutual coherence is devised as a diagnosability criterion for evaluating whether the measurements contain enough information for identifying the potential leaks. The optimal sensor placement problem is then reformulated as a {0, 1} quadratic knapsack problem, seeking an optimal sensor placement scheme by minimizing the average mutual coherence to maximize the degree of diagnosability. To effectively handle the complicated real-life water distribution networks, a validated binary version of artificial bee colony algorithm enhanced by genetic operators, including crossover and swap, is introduced to solve the binary knapsack problem. The proposed strategy is illustrated and validated through a real-life water distribution network with synthetically generated field data.

scholarly journals On the Complexities of the Design of Water Distribution Networks

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquín Izquierdo ◽  
Idel Montalvo ◽  
Rafael Pérez-García ◽  
Agustín Matías
Keyword(s):  
Water Distribution ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Software Tool ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Engineering Problem ◽  
Hydraulic Engineering ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Decision Variables

Water supply is one of the most recognizable and important public services contributing to quality of life. Water distribution networks (WDNs) are extremely complex assets. A number of complex tasks, such as design, planning, operation, maintenance, and management, are inherently associated with such networks. In this paper, we focus on the design of a WDN, which is a wide and open problem in hydraulic engineering. This problem is a large-scale combinatorial, nonlinear, nonconvex, multiobjective optimization problem, involving various types of decision variables and many complex implicit constraints. To handle this problem, we provide a synergetic association between swarm intelligence and multiagent systems where human interaction is also enabled. This results in a powerful collaborative system for finding solutions to such a complex hydraulic engineering problem. All the ingredients have been integrated into a software tool that has also been shown to efficiently solve problems from other engineering fields.

scholarly journals The Evaluation of Reliability Indices in Water Distribution Networks under Pipe Failure Condition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Moghaddam ◽  
Roya Peirovi-Minaee ◽  
Hossein Rezaei ◽  
Alireza Faridhosseini ◽  
Ali Naghi Ziaei
Keyword(s):  
Water Distribution ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Network Resilience ◽  
Pipe Failure ◽  
Reliability Indicators ◽  
Resilience Index ◽  
Failure Conditions

Abstract. In this research, reliability indicators of water distribution networks are evaluated under pipe failure conditions. The case studies include two benchmark and one real-life water distribution networks in Iran with more hydraulic constraints. Some important reliability indicators are presented such as resilience index, network resilience, modified resilience index and minimum surplus head index. GANetXL is used to do one-objective and two-objective optimization of the previously mentioned water distribution networks in order to not only minimize the cost, but also maximize the reliability indicators. Moreover, the results of a statistical analysis for each pipe is used to determine the sensitive pipes that are of the most failure probability. GANetXL is an optimization tool in Excel environment and works based on Genetic Algorithm. GANetXL has the capability of being linked to EPANET (Hydraulic simulation software). The results obtained clearly show that network resilience index is of poor performance when compared with the other indexes under pipe failure conditions, especially in real-life networks that include small pipe diameters. It was also showed that if a water distribution network was optimized only in terms of cost, there would be an unacceptable pressure drop at some nodes in case of pipe failure.

scholarly journals Partition of Water Distribution Networks into District Metered Areas Using a Graph Theoretical Approach

10.29007/l442 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jure Zevnik ◽  
Daniel Kozelj
Keyword(s):  
Water Distribution ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
Graph Theoretic ◽  
Graph Theoretical Approach ◽  
Connected Subgraphs ◽  
The Cost

We present a method for partitioning Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) into District Metered Areas (DMAs) by using a spectral graph partitioning algorithm. The effectiveness of DMA design was tested for selected edge weights and multiple numbers of established DMAs. The presented method includes a novel graph theoretic approach to determine and evaluate only relevant combinations of DMA connection. It was tested on a real-life case study for which several different solutions were generated and evaluated against their hydraulic performance. The optimal solution, i.e. design of DMAs, was selected regarding the quality of partition and the cost of WDN segmentation, since hydraulic adequacy was met for all cases where partitioning resulted in connected subgraphs.

scholarly journals Efficient Partitioning of Water Distribution Networks Using a Graph-Theoretical Approach

2018 ◽  
pp. 35-50
Author(s):  
Jure Zevnik ◽  
Marjeta Kramar Fijavž ◽  
Daniel Kozelj
Keyword(s):  
Water Distribution ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Theoretical Method ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Multi Criteria Evaluation ◽  
Graph Theoretical Approach ◽  
Spectral Partitioning

We present an efficient graph-theoretical method for partitioning water distribution networks (WDNs) into district metered areas (DMAs). The proposed algorithm consists of two main parts, namely WDN partitioning and DMA connection, and is tested on a real-life WDN, for which different weight cases are compared. The efficiency of the proposed DMA connection algorithm, in regard to the traditional combinatorics approach, is shown for various numbers of established DMAs. The final solution is selected according to the multi-criteria evaluation model, which was developed in order to reduce the subjective influence in the selection process and considers hydraulic, cost, and topological criteria. The results show that the newly proposed spectral partitioning method, namely generalized normalized cut, is appropriate for WDN partitioning and that we can further improve the quality of the obtained solutions by considering appropriate topological and cost-based WDN information in the partitioning process.

scholarly journals Optimal Valve Operation for Restoring Functionality of WDN during Critical Events

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Mirjam Blokker ◽  
Cristiana Di Cristo ◽  
Annalisa Gentile ◽  
Rudy Gargano ◽  
Karel van Laarhoven ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Distribution ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Water Distribution Network ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Drinking Water Distribution ◽  
Water Companies ◽  
Valve Operation ◽  
Selection Of

Water distribution networks are expected to fulfill the water demand by all consumers and at all times, even during critical scenarios, such as pipe failures. In this work, a methodology is proposed to maximize the quality of service during pipe failures by operating valves. The selection of the valves to operate is done by solving an optimization problem using Gondwana, a generic optimization tool for drinking water distribution networks. Different objective functions and different failure scenarios are investigated, considering a real-life water distribution network. The analysis is performed considering the peak demand condition. The proposed methodology is useful for water companies in managing the operation of their networks during critical scenarios.

Vulnerability and robustness of networked infrastructures: beyond typical graph-based measures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Ponti ◽  
Antonio Candelieri ◽  
Francesco Archetti
Keyword(s):  
Probability Distribution ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Linear Optimization ◽  
Minimum Energy ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Wasserstein Distance ◽  
Water Distribution Networks ◽  
Wasserstein Distances

<p>The issue of vulnerability and robustness in networked systems can be addressed by several methods. The most widely used are based on a set of centrality and connectivity measures from network theory which basically relate vulnerability to the loss of efficiency caused by the removal of some nodes and edges. Another related view is given by the analysis of the spectra of the adjacency and Laplacian matrices of the graph associated to the networked system.</p><p>The main contribution of this paper is the introduction of a new set of vulnerability metrics given by the distance between the probability distribution of node-node distances between the original network and that resulting from the removal of nodes/edges. Two such probabilistic measures have been analysed: Jensen-Shannon (JS) divergence and Wasserstein (WST) distance, aka the Earth-Mover distance: this name comes from its informal interpretation as the minimum energy cost of moving and transforming a pile of dirt in the shape of one probability distribution to the shape of the other distribution. The cost is quantified by the amount of dirt moved times the moving distance. The Wasserstein distance can be traced back to the works of Gaspard Monge in 1761 and Lev Kantorovich in 1942. Wasserstein distances are generally well defined and provide an interpretable distance metric between distributions. Computing Wasserstein distances requires in general the solution of a constrained linear optimization problem which is, when the support of the probability distributions is multidimensional, very large.</p><p>An advantage of the Wasserstein distance is that, under quite general conditions, it is a differentiable function of the parameters of the distributions which makes possible its use to assess the sensitivity of the network robustness to distributional perturbations. The computational results related to two real-life water distribution networks confirm that the value of the distances JS and WST is strongly related to the criticality of the removed edges. Both are more discriminating, at least for water distribution networks, than efficiency-based and spectral measures. A general methodological scheme has been developed connecting different modelling and computational elements, concepts and analysis tools, to create an analysis framework suitable for analysing robustness. This modelling and algorithmic framework can also support the analysis of other networked infrastructures among which power grids, gas distribution and transit networks.</p>

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