Identifying critical elements in sewer networks using graph-theory

Journal Article (2018)
Author(s)

Didrik Meijer (Deltares, TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)

Marco van Bijnen (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences, M. van Bijnen Advies)

Jeroen Langeveld (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Partners4UrbanWater)

Hans Korving (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Deltares)

Johan Post (Partners4UrbanWater)

François Clemens (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Deltares)

Research Group
Sanitary Engineering
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.3390/w10020136 Final published version
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Publication Year
2018
Language
English
Research Group
Sanitary Engineering
Issue number
2
Volume number
10
Article number
136
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367
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Abstract

Underground water infrastructure is essential for life in cities. The aging of these infrastructures requires maintenance strategies to maintain a minimum service level. Not all elements are equally important for the functioning of the infrastructure as a whole. Identifying the most critical elements in a network is crucial for formulating asset management strategies. The graph theory is presented as a means to identify the most critical elements in a network with respect to malfunctioning of the system as a whole. As opposed to conventional methods, the proposed method does not rely on iterative hydraulic calculations; instead, the structure of the network is taken as a starting point. In contrast to methods applied in practise, the results are independent on the chosen test-load. Because of the limited calculation effort, the method allows the analysis of large networks that are now, for practical reasons, beyond the scope of methods applied so-far.