Pressure-Dependent Analysis of Water Distribution Network Having Different Required Pressure Values at Different Nodes

Researchers have been interested in the pressure-dependent analysis (PDA) of a pressure-deficient water distribution network (WDN) in a single run of demand-dependent analysis solver, EPANET 2.0, for the past two decades, as there was no free solver for PDA. The EPANET 2.0 is upgraded to EPANET 2.2 to facilitate the PDA analysis. At some minimum pressure, outflow at a node starts, and at some required pressure designed outflow rate is reached. In a real-world network, when the requirements of many consumers are combined at a single node, the corresponding required pressures at those nodes may vary. The EPANET 2.2 has limitation as it cannot consider different values of required pressures at different nodes to obtain available flows. Under such a situation, a methodology based on DDA option with the use of artificial elements, namely, flow control valve, check valve, and emitter, is proposed in this paper using EPANET 2.2. For the PDA analysis of a small network, the graphical user interface of EPANET 2.2 with DDA and artificial elements is utilized. The objective of this research is to simulate the performance of a pressure-deficient water distribution network using a sequence of artificial elements and to examine the pressure and outflow values for pressure-deficient nodes. The case study networks are simulated using EPANET 2.2 demand-driven analysis (DDA) graphical user interface. Considering limitation of EPANET 2.2 PDA, the results for varying required pressure are compared and validated with fictitious component-free pressure-deficient network (FCF-PDNA) analysis approach.