GA-ILP Method for Optimization of Water Distribution Networks

Optimization of water distribution networks has been of central importance for recent decades. Genetic Algorithms (GA) are the most famous metaheuristics widely used for this purpose with great success. However, the fact that GA basically requires a large number of computations, has led to investigate for faster solvers. In this research, a new approach is proposed in which a simple GA is linked with the Integer-Linear Programming (ILP) method resulting in a hybrid optimization scheme. Using the mathematical method of ILP, the search space is significantly reduced thereby a limited number of evaluations are required to achieve a good solution. The approach is applied to two benchmark pipe-networks in order to show its ability in terms of accuracy and speed. The results are then compared with the previous works. The obtained results indicate that the proposed model is computationally efficient, like classic methods, while is still very promising in finding the global optimum like the nature-inspired metaheuristics. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011