Design of water distribution systems using an intelligent simple benchmarking algorithm with respect to cost optimization and computational efficiency

The increasing stress on the water distribution network (WDN) considering demand satisfaction with minimum cost has inspired designers to apply various optimization techniques to meet the consequent challenges. The traditional way of using optimization methods, e.g. stochastic metaheuristic algorithms, have come along with various constraints to explore an optimum solution. In this study, a newly developed meta-heuristic algorithm called the Simple Benchmarking Algorithm (SBA) is used to optimize pipe size. A modified approach with SBA having interfaces with the EPANET 2.0 hydraulic simulation model is used to compute the minimum cost of the two-loop network and the Hanoi benchmark WDN. Results show that SBA is more efficient in obtaining the least possible cost with fast convergence.