A memetic algorithm for water distribution network design

The majority of real optimization problems cannot be solved exactly because they have very large and highly complex search spaces. One of these complex problems is the design of looped water distribution networks, which consists of determining the best way of conveying water from the sources to the users, satisfying their requirements. This paper is to present a new memetic algorithm and evaluate its performance in this problem. With the aim to establish an accurate conclusion, other four heuristic approaches have also been adapted, including simulated annealing, mixed simulated annealing and tabu search, iterated local search, and scatter search. Results obtained in two water distribution networks demonstrate that the memetic algorithm works better when the size of the problem increases.