Design Optimization of Water Distribution Networks with Dynamic Search Space Reduction GA

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have been used extensively for the optimal design of water distribution networks (WDNs). There is evidence in the literature that search space reduction is highly effective. However, practical methods that do not introduce extra computational requirements are lacking. A dynamic search space reduction methodology is proposed to search the entire solution space without eliminating any part of the search space beforehand. The proposed methodology works on the information explored during the execution of the algorithm. Further, a self-adaptive penalty is suggested which is based on both flow and pressure deficits instead of only pressure deficit and is obtained using pressure dependent analysis. In this study, the methodology is demonstrated using a Genetic Algorithm (GA). The effectiveness of the methodology is demonstrated on the Ramnagar Network of Nagpur City, India and two benchmark problems from the literature. The proposed methodology resulted in a substantial reduction in the computational efforts and provided nine improved solutions as compared to the best solution available in the literature for one of the networks. The techniques proposed are generic and can be incorporated in other EAs.