Leakage detection in water distribution networks by the use of analytical and experimental models

Recently, calibration based methods are considered to determine the quantities and locations of all leakages in a water distribution network (WDN), simultaneously. In this paper, the accuracy of detecting leakages using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) in two networks including a hypothetical and a laboratory network is investigated. A novel method is introduced to analyze the effects of measurement errors on demand calibration in an under-determined problem. The results confirm the ability of the optimization-based method in detecting the exact locations and values of the leakages in a WDN. Also, it is emphasized that merely suitable fitnesses cannot provide sufficient confidence in result accuracy. To overcome this difficulty, the correctness of leakage detection can be verified in a sampling design problem. Moreover, to check the reliability of leakage detection an alternative method based on various results is introduced in this research.