A layout process of natural gas pipeline network with the simultaneous optimization of failure probability and construction cost

At present, the layout optimization of natural gas pipeline network is firstly to reach the objective of the shortest path or the minimum construction cost and analyze the failure probability based on the determined optimized layout. However, the risk losses caused by various failures during the pipeline operation are more and more important, thus it is necessary to take the risk losses caused by failures into account in the stage of pipeline layout planning. A new gas pipeline layout optimization process was proposed in order to realize the simultaneous optimization of failure probability and construction cost in the stage of layout planning. First, the Back-Propagation Network (BP) neural network prediction model is trained and verified based on the failure probability and soil composition data of the constructed pipe networks or similar pipeline networks. Second, the failure probability is predicted based on the soil composition data corresponding to the initial laying path of the pipeline network to be optimized, and then the failure probability and the construction cost of the pipeline network to be optimized are normalized simultaneously. Third, the product of the normalized failure probability and construction cost is defined as the score. Lastly, the optimal layout is obtained by means of the minimum spanning tree algorithm. In the optimized layout with the shortest path, only the construction cost can be minimized, and the simultaneous minimization of failure probability and construction cost can be hardly realized. In the optimized layout with the smallest score, the failure probability can be minimized while the construction cost is nearly equal to the minimum value. In this way, failure probability and construction cost are optimized simultaneously.