Topology Design and Component Selection in an Urban Gas Network: Simultaneous Optimization Approach

Abstract

Natural gas is generally transmitted from production to consumption areas through an infrastructure of pipelines consisting of three separate networks, namely transmission, feeding, and distribution. The transmission network delivers high-pressure gas near the main consumption areas, and feeding and distribution networks reduce the gas pressure in two stages through city gate stations (CGS) and town board stations (TBS) before delivering it to consumers. An urban gas network consists of feeding and distribution networks. The present study proposes a mathematical model for the topology design of an urban gas network. The model determines topology and capacities for the TBS of the network having the least possible cost. An algorithm is presented for small-network problems to obtain the diameters of the network pipes taking into account the pressure and velocity constraints of the gas networks. In addition, a hybrid ant colony algorithm is proposed for solving large-network problems. Finally, the applicability of the proposed model and proposed algorithms are assessed in a case study.