Nodal matrix analysis for optimal pressure-reducing valve localization in a water distribution system

The use of pressure-reducing valves is an efficient pressure management technique for leakage reduction in a water distribution system. It is recommended to place an optimized number and location of pressure-reducing valves in the water distribution system for better sustainability and management. A modified reference pressure algorithm is adopted from the literature for identifying the optimized localization of valves using a simplified algorithm. The modified reference pressure algorithm fails to identify the optimal valve localization in a large-scale water pipeline network. Nodal matrix analysis is proposed for further improvement of the modified reference pressure algorithm. The proposed algorithm provides the preferred pipeline for valve location among all the pressure-reducing valve candidate locations obtained from the modified reference algorithm in complex pipeline networks. The proposed algorithm is utilized for pressure management in a real water network located in Piracicaba, Brazil, called Campos do Conde II. It identifies four pipeline locations as optimal valve candidate locations, compared to 22 locations obtained from the modified reference pressure algorithm. Thus, the presented technique led to a better optimal localization of valves, which contributes to better network optimization, sustainability, and management. The results of the current study evidenced that the adoption of the proposed algorithm leads to an overall reduction in water leakages by 20.08% in the water network.