A Survey of Pressure Control Approaches in Water Supply Systems

Abstract

Pressure control in water distribution networks (WDNs) provides an avenue for improving both their sustainability and reliability. The complexities of the networks make the problem more challenging as various situational operations must be accounted for to ensure that the entire system performs under recommended conditions. In general, this problem is addressed by the installation of pressure reducing valves (PRVs) in WDNs and determining their appropriate settings. Researchers have proposed the utilization of several control techniques. However, the limitations of both computational and financial resources have compelled the researchers to investigate the possibility of limiting the PRVs while ensuring their control is sufficient for the entire system. Several approaches have been put forward to mitigate this sub-problem of the pressure control problem. This paper presents a review of existing techniques to solve both the localization of PRVs and their control problems. It dwells briefly on the classification of these methods and subsequently highlights their merits and demerits. Despite the available literature, it can be noted that the solution methods are yet to be harmonized. As a result, various avenues of research areas are available. This paper further presents the possible research areas that could be exploited in this domain.

Towards Model-Free Pressure Control in Water Distribution Networks

“…Presently, it is generally accepted that proper management of pressure in WDNs leads to more reliable operation [2][3][4][5][6]. The pressure in WDNs is normally adjusted and maintained by pressure reducing valves (PRVs) [7,8]. Determination of an appropriate adjustment of pressure in PRVs has been a challenge over the past few decades.…”

Appraising the Impact of Pressure Control on Leakage Flow in Water Distribution Networks

“…Among the methods reviewed in [39,40], it was evident that machine-learning-based techniques would play a huge role in the future of WDN management. Nevertheless, the methods then relied heavily on the existence of the huge dataset of measurements to build the model.…”

Innovative Water Supply Network Pressure Management Method—The Establishment and Application of the Intelligent Pressure-Regulating Vehicle

“…However, the methodologies presented were not tested under uncertainties in the networks. Due to the uncertainties in DMAs or zones, the pressure-reducing stations built accordingly may not meet the actual needs of pressure management well, resulting in financial waste [9]. Thus building temporary pressure-reducing stations for field experiments to detect where and how to build the optimal pressure-reducing station becomes a better choice [10,11].…”

“…This paper addresses problems in pressure-reducing management for water industries, which are: 1. difficult decisions on pressure-reducing station construction without completed information [9], and 2. high cost and operational difficulties of field experiments once the pressure-reducing station has been built [10,11]. This paper aims to build a device based on intelligent pressure regulation technology, SCADA, and Internet of Things (IoT) technology [14].…”

“…The network parameters may change due to environmental uncertainties, resulting in the network hydraulic model simulation results deviating from the actual [9]. The IPRV can continuously provide companies with the analysis results of pressure reduction potential based on the real-time monitoring data, which helps utility managers to evaluate the necessity of regional pressure regulation thus addressing problem 1.…”