A Hydraulic Simulation Model for Pipe Networks with Leakage Outflows and Pressure-Driven Demands

Increasingly, water loss via leakage is acknowledged as one of the main challenges facing water distribution system operation. The consideration of water loss over time, as systems age, physical networks grow and consumption patterns mature, should form an integral part of effective asset management, rendering any simulation model capable of quantifying pressure-driven leakage indispensable. To this end, a novel steady-state network simulation model that fully integrates, into a classical hydraulic representation, pressure-driven demand and leakage at the pipe level is developed and presented here. After testing and verification, this model is used as a basis for the development of a corresponding extended period simulation (EPS) model which, in turn, is used to assess system performance by evaluating the volume of water lost, either due to leakage or inappropriate system pressures. The EPS model is applied a case study involving an Apulian network (Southern Italy).