CCWI2017: F6 'Optimal positioning of water quality sensors in water distribution networks: comparison of numerical and experimental results'

In the water distribution networks, a deliberate or accidental contamination causes loss of waterquality; the implementation of a real-time sensor network is essential to promptly detect the event ofcontamination. To achieve the optimum positioning of the probes, to reduce the cost of theinstrumentation and maintenance, and obtaining, at the same time, a reliable monitoring of thesystem, optimization techniques are widely applied.In the present study, a numerical optimisation approach was compared with the results of anexperimental campaign. The optimization problem is formulated in accordance with literature stateof-the-art, using the genetic algorithm NSGA-II coupled with a hydraulic simulator. The resultswere tested and verified using a looped laboratory distribution network, equipped with a real-timemonitoring water quality system, which allows to run contamination experiments in a controlledenvironment.