An efficient null space inexact Newton method for hydraulic simulation of water distribution networks

Null space Newton algorithms are efficient in solving the nonlinear equations arising in hydraulic analysis of water distribution networks. In this article, we propose and evaluate an inexact Newton method that relies on partial updates of the network pipes' frictional headloss computations to solve the linear systems more efficiently and with numerical reliability. The update set parameters are studied to propose appropriate values. Different null space basis generation schemes are analysed to choose methods for sparse and well-conditioned null space bases resulting in a smaller update set. The Newton steps are computed in the null space by solving sparse, symmetric positive definite systems with sparse Cholesky factorizations. By using the constant structure of the null space system matrices, a single symbolic factorization in the Cholesky decomposition is used multiple times, reducing the computational cost of linear solves. The algorithms and analyses are validated using medium to large-scale water network models.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, Preprint extension of Abraham and Stoianov, 2015 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0001089), September 2015. Includes extended exposition, additional case studies and new simulations and analysi

Pressure-dependent EPANET extension

In water distribution systems (WDSs), the available flow at a demand node is dependent on the pressure at that node. When a network is lacking in pressure, not all consumer demands will be met in full. In this context, the assumption that all demands are fully satisfied regardless of the pressure in the system becomes unreasonable and represents the main limitation of the conventional demand driven analysis (DDA) approach to WDS modelling. A realistic depiction of the network performance can only be attained by considering demands to be pressure dependent. This paper presents an extension of the renowned DDA based hydraulic simulator EPANET 2 to incorporate pressure-dependent demands. This extension is termed “EPANET-PDX” (pressure-dependent extension) herein. The utilization of a continuous nodal pressure-flow function coupled with a line search and backtracking procedure greatly enhance the algorithm’s convergence rate and robustness. Simulations of real life networks consisting of multiple sources, pipes, valves and pumps were successfully executed and results are presented herein. Excellent modelling performance was achieved for analysing both normal and pressure deficient conditions of the WDSs. Detailed computational efficiency results of EPANET-PDX with reference to EPANET 2 are included as well

Recovery of Interdependent Networks

Recent network research has focused on the cascading failures in a system of interdependent networks and the necessary preconditions for system collapse. An important question that has not been addressed is how to repair a failing system before it suffers total breakdown. Here we introduce a recovery strategy of nodes and develop an analytic and numerical framework for studying the concurrent failure and recovery of a system of interdependent networks based on an efficient and practically reasonable strategy. Our strategy consists of repairing a fraction of failed nodes, with probability of recovery $\gamma$, that are neighbors of the largest connected component of each constituent network. We find that, for a given initial failure of a fraction $1-p$ of nodes, there is a critical probability of recovery above which the cascade is halted and the system fully restores to its initial state and below which the system abruptly collapses. As a consequence we find in the plane $\gamma-p$ of the phase diagram three distinct phases. A phase in which the system never collapses without being restored, another phase in which the recovery strategy avoids the breakdown, and a phase in which even the repairing process cannot avoid the system collapse

Short overview of early developments of the Hardy Cross type methods for computation of flow distribution in pipe networks

Hardy Cross originally proposed a method for analysis of flow in networks of conduits or conductors in 1936. His method was the first really useful engineering method in the field of pipe network calculation. Only electrical analogs of hydraulic networks were used before the Hardy Cross method. A problem with flow resistance versus electrical resistance makes these electrical analog methods obsolete. The method by Hardy Cross is taught extensively at faculties, and it remains an important tool for the analysis of looped pipe systems. Engineers today mostly use a modified Hardy Cross method that considers the whole looped network of pipes simultaneously (use of these methods without computers is practically impossible). A method from a Russian practice published during the 1930s, which is similar to the Hardy Cross method, is described, too. Some notes from the work of Hardy Cross are also presented. Finally, an improved version of the Hardy Cross method, which significantly reduces the number of iterations, is presented and discussed. We also tested multi-point iterative methods, which can be used as a substitution for the Newton-Raphson approach used by Hardy Cross, but in this case this approach did not reduce the number of iterations. Although many new models have been developed since the time of Hardy Cross, the main purpose of this paper is to illustrate the very beginning of modeling of gas and water pipe networks and ventilation systems. As a novelty, a new multi-point iterative solver is introduced and compared with the standard Newton-Raphson iterative method.Web of Science910art. no. 201

Examination of optimizing information flow in networks

The central role of the Internet and the World-Wide-Web in global communications has refocused much attention on problems involving optimizing information flow through networks. The most basic formulation of the question is called the "max flow" optimization problem: given a set of channels with prescribed capacities that connect a set of nodes in a network, how should the materials or information be distributed among the various routes to maximize the total flow rate from the source to the destination. Theory in linear programming has been well developed to solve the classic max flow problem. Modern contexts have demanded the examination of more complicated variations of the max flow problem to take new factors or constraints into consideration; these changes lead to more difficult problems where linear programming is insufficient. In the workshop we examined models for information flow on networks that considered trade-offs between the overall network utility (or flow rate) and path diversity to ensure balanced usage of all parts of the network (and to ensure stability and robustness against local disruptions in parts of the network). While the linear programming solution of the basic max flow problem cannot handle the current problem, the approaches primal/dual formulation for describing the constrained optimization problem can be applied to the current generation of problems, called network utility maximization (NUM) problems. In particular, primal/dual formulations have been used extensively in studies of such networks. A key feature of the traffic-routing model we are considering is its formulation as an economic system, governed by principles of supply and demand. Considering channel capacities as a commodity of limited supply, we might suspect that a system that regulates traffic via a pricing scheme would assign prices to channels in a manner inversely proportional to their respective capacities. Once an appropriate network optimization problem has been formulated, it remains to solve the optimization problem; this will need to be done numerically, but the process can greatly benefit from simplifications and reductions that follow from analysis of the problem. Ideally the form of the numerical solution scheme can give insight on the design of a distributed algorithm for a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) that can be directly implemented on the network. At the workshop we considered the optimization problems for two small prototype network topologies: the two-link network and the diamond network. These examples are small enough to be tractable during the workshop, but retain some of the key features relevant to larger networks (competing routes with different capacities from the source to the destination, and routes with overlapping channels, respectively). We have studied a gradient descent method for solving obtaining the optimal solution via the dual problem. The numerical method was implemented in MATLAB and further analysis of the dual problem and properties of the gradient method were carried out. Another thrust of the group's work was in direct simulations of information flow in these small networks via Monte Carlo simulations as a means of directly testing the efficiencies of various allocation strategies