Oriented modelling for reducing water losses in drinking water distribution networks by advanced pressure management: Antalya-Kaleiçi case study

The water utilities in each country strive to minimize water losses in their water distribution networks (WDNs) to increase the revenue and the capacity of their services. Leakage, which is a flow driven by pressure, is an important type of water losses in WDNs. Hence, pressure management (PM) is one of the principal techniques used for leakage reduction. The classical PM aims at reducing water pressure to a fixed level all the time and ignores the impacts of exceptional water demands, e.g. fire demands. The advanced PM aims at keeping the pressure at the critical points (CPs) in the WDN at the minimum allowable levels all the time besides satisfying the extraordinary water demands as well. Therefore, the advanced PM reduces leakage more than classical PM. Hydraulic modeling is a fundamental tool in applying PM for leakage reduction. In this thesis study, hydraulic modeling of Kaleiçi WDN has been carried out by EPANET 2.0 software using Hazen-Williams equation. Volume of leakage was determined by the standard water balance. Assuming a uniformly distributed leakage along each pipe, the total leakage has been distributed to all junctions in the model by defining the leakage coefficients, which are determined by the half-length of the pipes connected to each junction. Consequently, the leakage has been predicted spatially and temporally. The impact of several parameters such as roughness coefficient and leakage exponent on the precision of modeling has been investigated. The pipe roughness coefficients have been calibrated and verified for a value of 57.6. Depending on the verified roughness value, the leakage reduction by an advanced PM technique has been predicted over two simulation periods in summer and winter to be 6.82 m3/h and 5.79 m3/h, respectively. Finally, two scenarios related to leakage reduction by advanced PM have been examined. The first scenario assumes a future change of non-leakage flow by ±%25, while the other scenario assumes that leakage is reduced to the economic leakage level (ELL). The spatial and temporal leakage predictions and the impact of each scenario on the predicted pressure at the CP have been shown in the results. It has been found that hydraulic modeling is an essential tool for spatial and temporal prediction of leakage.