Hydraulic State Estimation of Post-Earthquake Water Distribution Systems

The damage of a post-earthquake water distribution system depends on seismic intensity. If the earthquake causes the water distribution system to leak, even though the system can continue to provide water supply for customers, the supply pressure tends to decline and the service level of the system becomes worse. Hydraulic state estimation helps utilities to assess the performance of post-earthquake water distribution systems and to make better decisions restore the water distribution systems. Based on the analysis of seismic intensity; the quantitative leakage area model is introduced to describe the failure intensity of pipes. And then, this paper combines the leakage area model and the hydraulic analysis model to establish the post-earthquake hydraulic analysis model of the water distribution systems. The leakage magnitude and the node pressure are modeled by the leakage area. The post-earthquake hydraulic model is solved using Matlab. Finally, the proposed model is demonstrated on an example water distribution system. The supply pressures at nodes with the failure of pipes are obtained resulting from the earthquake. This study builds a foundation for performance assessment and restoration of post-earthquake water distribution systems.