JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

A water distribution network (WDN) may not be able to satisfy all required demands when it’s in the pressure deficit mode or under over-loaded demand conditions. Analysis of the network in this mode requires pressure dependent analysis (PDA). Unlike demand driven analysis (DDA), PDA needs an extra equation for every node to relate the nodal demand and the nodal pressure; so it should be solved with the other network’s equations simultaneously. In this paper, based on the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, a decision support system has been developed by using MATLAB and EPANET for PDA simulation in WDNs. A four-loop network selected from the literature was analyzed using different scenarios and different pressure dependent functions presented by the previous investigations. The results showed that the proposed model (PSO-PDA) was as accurate as the previous ones and provided better convergence. The results of the nodes’ pressure and discharge also indicated minor differences obtained by different PDA functions. However, the differences between the results of PDA and DDA were considerable.