Abstract:
Water distribution systems are the most essential for urban infrastructure worldwide which
need enormous investment for construction. The nonlinear relationship amongst the flow,
head loss, and availability of the various pipe sizes are inherent challenge related to
economical in the design water distribution systems. This study was aimed to optimize the
designed water distribution system in the Wukro town using WaterGEMS model. The
Darwin Designer in WaterGEMS was applied for finding optimal pipe diameter to supply
adequate quantity of water at satisfactory pressures to the end users. In the WaterGEMS
model, the Darwin Scheduler of daily pumping operations tools also used for optimal
control and operation of pump systems. The WaterGEMS model was implemented in water
distribution networks which include 117 pipes (40.67km), 99 demand nodes (equivalent to
50480 end users) that are spread across a hilly area over a 1989m to 2046m elevation
gradient. The model was calibrated at the selected nodes within very good performance.
The results have shown that the maximum pressure before optimization is 31.1m and after
optimization increased to 38.1m, the minimum pressure on the former is 7.9m and 16m
later during peak hour demand. Comparison of results showed that the optimized networks
reduce the cost by 9.6% than those of before optimization networks by traditional hydraulic.
In addition to this, the optimal tanks filling/emptying arrangement decreased the daily cost
of energy consumptions by 12.5% compare as a currently scheduled pump. The finding of
this study indicated that the WaterGEMS model is a promising approach for optimal sizing
of pipes in design water distribution networks and pumping operational schedules.
