Managing water main breaks in distribution networks––A risk-based decision making

Hieu Chi Phan, Ashutosh Sutra Dhar, Guangji Hu and Rehan Sadiq

Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 2019, vol. 191, issue C

Abstract: Water distribution network (WDN) is an important infrastructure which suffers from failures. A risk-based decision making required for maintaining the integrity of water mains effectively. This paper presents a framework for risk assessment of pipes in a WDN for maintenance prioritization. Because pipe failure can lead to various types of consequences, a fuzzy inference system (FIS) is proposed to aggregate different consequences. The properties of algebraic connectivity (AC) from complex network analysis are used to assess the topological consequence accounting for the change in redundancy of the network and the service disruption due to isolation of nodes. The AC-based approach is found to reasonably correspond to the hydraulic importance of the pipes determined through hydraulic analysis for the most critical pipes. Other consequences such as cost of repair and effects on the community can be determined using relevant consequence parameters such as diameter and are combined with the topological consequence using FIS for risk assessment. Based on the risk analysis, a risk map can be developed, highlighting the pipes with high risk levels for prioritization planning. A relationship between the risk and maximum failure probability of pipes within a network is developed for selecting the thresholds for decision making.

Keywords: Risk; Prioritizing plan; Water distribution network; Algebraic connectivity; Fuzzy inference system; Importance factor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reensy:v:191:y:2019:i:c:s0951832018313899

DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2019.106581

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