Improving the Efficiency of the Loop Method for the Simulation of Water Distribution Systems

Efficiency of hydraulic solvers for the simulation of flows and pressures in water distribution systems (WDSs) is very important, especially in the context of optimization and risk analysis problems, where the hydraulic simulation has to be repeated many times. Among the methods used for hydraulic solvers, the most prominent nowadays is the global gradient algorithm (GGA), based on a hybrid node-loop formulation. Previously, another method based just on loop flow equations was proposed, which presents the advantage that it leads to a system matrix that is in most cases much smaller than in the GGA method, but has also some disadvantages, mainly a less sparse system matrix and the fact that introducing some types of valves requires the redefinition of the set of network loops initially defined. The contribution of this paper is to present solutions for overcoming the mentioned disadvantages of the method based on loop flow equations. In particular, efficient procedures are shown for selecting the network loops so as to achieve a highly sparse matrix and methods are presented to incorporate check valves and automatic control valves while avoiding the need to redefine the loops initially selected. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.