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Optimal reliability-based design of bulk water supply systems

Includes bibliographical references.

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Main Author: Chang, Ching-Chiao
Other Authors: Van Zyl, Jakobus E
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Civil Engineering 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Chang, Ching-Chiao
author2 Van Zyl, Jakobus E
author_browse Chang, Ching-Chiao
Van Zyl, Jakobus E
author_facet Van Zyl, Jakobus E
Chang, Ching-Chiao
author_sort Chang, Ching-Chiao
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14593
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:53.390Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Civil Engineering
publisherStr Department of Civil Engineering
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14593 Optimal reliability-based design of bulk water supply systems Chang, Ching-Chiao Van Zyl, Jakobus E Civil Engineering Includes bibliographical references. Bulk water supply systems are usually designed according to deterministic design guidelines. In South Africa, design guidelines specify that a bulk storage reservoir should have a storage capacity of 48 hours of annual average daily demand (AADD), and the feeder pipe a capacity of 1.5 times AADD (CSIR, 2000). Nel & Haarhoff (1996) proposed a stochastic analysis method that allowed the reliability of a reservoir to be estimated based on a Monte Carlo analysis of consumer demand, fire water demand and pipe failures. Van Zyl et al. (2008) developed this method further and proposed a design criterion of one failure in ten years under seasonal peak conditions. In this study, a method for the optimal design of bulk water supply systems is proposed with the design variables being the configuration of the feeder pipe system, the feeder pipe diameters (i.e. capacity), and the size of the bulk storage reservoir. The stochastic analysis method is applied to determine a trade-off curve between system cost and reliability, from which the designer can select a suitable solution. Optimisation of the bulk system was performed using the multi-objective genetic algorithm, NSGA-II. As Monte Carlo sampling can be computationally expensive, especially when large numbers of simulations are required in an optimisation exercise, a compression heuristic was implemented and refined to reduce the computational effort required of the stochastic simulation. Use of the compression heuristic instead of full Monte Carlo simulation in the reliability analysis achieved computational time savings of around 75% for the optimisation of a typical system. Application of the optimisation model showed that it was able to successfully produce a set of Pareto-optimal solutions ranging from low reliability, low cost solutions to high reliability, high cost solutions. The proposed method was first applied to a typical system, resulting in an optimal reservoir size of approximately 22 h AADD and feeder pipe capacity of 2 times AADD. This solution achieved 9% savings in total system cost compared to the South African design guidelines. In addition, the optimal solution proved to have better reliability that one designed according to South African guidelines. A sensitivity analysis demonstrated the effects of changing various system and stochastic parameters from typical to low and high values. The sensitivity results revealed that the length of the feeder pipe system has the greatest impact on both the cost and reliability of the bulk system. It was also found that a single feeder pipe is optimal in most cases, and that parallel feeder pipes are only optimal for short feeder pipe lengths. The optimisation model is capable of narrowing down the search region to a handful of possible design solutions, and can thus be used by the engineer as a tool to assist with the design of the final system. 2015-11-02T10:53:04Z 2015-11-02T10:53:04Z 2011 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14593 eng application/pdf Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Civil Engineering
Chang, Ching-Chiao
Optimal reliability-based design of bulk water supply systems
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Optimal reliability-based design of bulk water supply systems
title_full Optimal reliability-based design of bulk water supply systems
title_fullStr Optimal reliability-based design of bulk water supply systems
title_full_unstemmed Optimal reliability-based design of bulk water supply systems
title_short Optimal reliability-based design of bulk water supply systems
title_sort optimal reliability based design of bulk water supply systems
topic Civil Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14593
work_keys_str_mv AT changchingchiao optimalreliabilitybaseddesignofbulkwatersupplysystems