Determining the Pressure Distribution on Water Pipeline Networks Using the Firefly Algorithm

Along with the increase of population, companies delivering clean water to customers are dealing with some problems on their networks, e.g., flow assurance. It is to guarantee the availability of water on customers or to provide sufficient pressure distribution at any points on the network. This study aims to model and calculate the pressure distribution on the water pipeline networks. Using the analogy of Kircho's Law for the electrical current to the flow of water in pipelines, we construct a non-linear equation system for representing the water distribution system. In this research, we consider the Hazen-Williams equation for modeling fluid dynamics. Then, it is solved by using a method of swarm intelligence, namely the firefly algorithm. To provide a better illustration, a case using the Hanoi network is presented. A model and computation determining pressure distribution/head at each point of the network are obtained, along with a comparison with EPANET.