Water Distribution Reliability: Simulation Methods

Abstract

Following a companion paper on analytical methods, this paper presents simulation as a complementary method for analyzing the reliability of water distribution networks. For this simulation, the distribution system is modeled as a network whose pipes and pumps are subject to failure. Nodes are targeted to receive a given supply at a given head. If this head is not attainable, supply at the node is reduced. Pumps and pipes fail randomly, according to probability distributions with user‐specified parameters. Several reliability measures are estimated with this simulation. Confidence intervals are also supplied for some of these reliability measures. Simulation results are presented for a small network (ten nodes) and a larger network (sixteen nodes). Simulation enables computation of a much broader class of reliability measures than do analytical methods, but it requires considerably more computer time and its results are less easy to generalize. It is therefore recommended that analytical and simulation methods be used together when assessing the reliability of a system and considering improvements.