Management of liquid conduit systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11078650-B2
Application number	US-201616061276-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2016
Priority date	Dec 21, 2015
Publication date	Aug 3, 2021
Grant date	Aug 3, 2021

Abstract

A method for controlling conditions within a liquid conduit system. The method comprising: defining a zone within the liquid conduit system, wherein pressure within the zone is influenced by one or more actuator valves; controlling the one or more actuator valves in dependence on a Pareto efficient solution to the minimisation of functions of the average pressure within the zone (AZP) and the pressure variability within the zone (PVZ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for controlling pressure conditions within a liquid conduit system comprising
defining a zone within the liquid conduit system, wherein pressure within the zone is influenced by one or more actuator valves;
defining a first function to be minimised, the first function expressing the average pressure within the zone (AZP);

defining a second function to be minimised, the second function expressing the pressure variability within the zone (PVZ);
minimising the first and second functions;
determining a Pareto efficient solution to a problem of optimal minimisation of both the first and second functions; and
controlling the one or more actuator valves in dependence on the Pareto efficient solution.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein one or more locations of the one or more actuator valves are selected in dependence on the Pareto efficient solution.

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the zone comprises a plurality of conduits, and each conduit is represented by a weighting factor for constraining the second function.

4. A method according to claim 3 , wherein the weighting factor is generated in dependence on a criticality risk-based parameter of the conduit.

5. A method according to claim 3 , wherein the weighting factor is generated in dependence on a vulnerability risk-based parameter of the conduit.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the Pareto efficient solution is obtained using a series of single-objective mixed integer non-linear programs.

7. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the Pareto efficient solution is obtained using a scalarization method.

8. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the first function is formulated as a weighted sum of nodal pressures within the zone, where a respective weighting factor for each nodal pressure is representative of lengths of conduit connected to corresponding nodes.

9. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium for carrying out the method of claim 1 .

10. An apparatus for controlling a liquid conduit system comprising a zone containing one or more actuator valves, the apparatus comprising one or more processors configured to
minimise a first function and a second function, wherein the first function expresses an average pressure within the zone (AZP) and the second function expresses a pressure variability within the zone (PVZ);
calculate a Pareto efficient solution to a problem of optimal minimisation of both the first and second functions; and
control the one or more actuator valves in dependence on the Pareto efficient solution.

11. An apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein one or more of the locations of the one or more actuator valves are selected in dependence on the Pareto efficient solution.

12. An apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the zone comprises a plurality of conduits, a corresponding weighting factor is ascribed to each conduit, and each weighting factor is applied within the second function.

13. An apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein the weighting factor is generated in dependence on a criticality risk-based parameter of the conduit.

14. An apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein the weighting is generated in dependence on a vulnerability risk-based parameter of the conduit.

15. An apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the Pareto efficient solution is obtained using a series of single-objective mixed integer non-linear programs.

16. An apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the Pareto efficient solution is obtained using a scalarization method.

17. An apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the first function is formulated as a weighted sum of nodal pressures within the zone, where a respective weighting factor for each nodal pressure is representative of lengths of conduit connected to corresponding nodes.

Assignees

• Imperial Innovations Ltd
• Ip2Ipo Innovations Ltd

Inventors

• Stoianov Ivan
• Abraham Edo
• Pecci Filippo

Classifications

• E03B7/02

  Public or like main pipe systems · CPC title

• Y02A20/15

  Leakage reduction or detection in water storage or distribution · CPC title

• G05D7/00 Primary

  Control of flow (level control G05D9/00; control of flow ratio G05D11/00) · CPC title

• E03B7/075

  Arrangement of devices for control of pressure or flow rate · CPC title

• G05D16/2026

  with a plurality of throttling means · CPC title