Honey-Bee Mating Optimization (HBMO) Algorithm for Optimal Design of Water Distribution Systems

This paper presents a novel evolutionary and meta-heuristic algorithm known as honey-bee mating optimization (HBMO) algorithm for the optimal design of a water distribution system. HBMO algorithm is a search-based optimization algorithm that mimics the mating behavior of honey-bee. Optimal design of a water distribution system is defined here as the identification of appropriate commercial diameters for the pipes of the system while satisfying the minimum required pressure head at all nodes for consumers and meeting velocity limits with the objective of minimizing the total investments. The algorithm uses EPANET software for the hydraulic simulation of the network. The performance of the algorithm is tested and verified on a well-known network in the literature as "New York Tunnel" water distribution system. The results obtained are compared to the ones obtained by other optimization methods in the literature. The comparison shows the capability of the proposed algorithm to identify the near optimal solution. The time being spent for the convergence of the algorithm is considerably short rather than the other optimization algorithms. This result would be promising for applying the proposed algorithm to real world water distribution systems, compared to other evolutionary algorithms.