Multiobjective optimization of water quality and rechlorination cost in water distribution systems

To comprehensively describe the effect of residual chlorine and disinfection by-products (DBPs) on water quality in water distribution systems (WDS) and optimize rechlorination cost, this study developed a multi-objective optimization model of water quality and rechlorination cost. Firstly, chlorine decay and DBPs formation were simulated using EPANET_MSX. An improved non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) with real code was used to optimize the multiobjective model and Pareto fronts could be obtained under different conditions. The results showed that Pareto fronts obtained by average value were better than those obtained by standard deviation and multiplication. Moreover, with the number of boosters increased, maximum value of water quality increased and rechlorination cost decreased. Wall chlorine decay constants were the most important on Pareto fronts, followed by the number of chlorination nodes, proportional coefficients of trihalomethanes (THMs) generation based on residual chlorine consumption, and THMs concentration.