REVIEW OF WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM MODELLING BY EPANET 2.0 AND THE DECISION VARIABLES FOR THE OPTIMAL DESIGN.

The distribution of potable water is an important aspect of a water supply scheme. The water must be available with sufficient pressure head and flow velocity while maintaining the standard quality and minimization of losses. The current study aims at the review of the use of EPANET 2.0 for the water distribution system modeling. The factors that can serve as the decision variables while aiming at an optimal design have been reviewed. A review of the studies pertaining to the performance evaluation and the leakage modeling of a designed network was reviewed. It was found that EPANET 2.0 is a great tool in cases where a modest degree of accuracy along with cost efficiency is required. To obtain an optimal design solution, the decision variables for the hydraulic design need to be constrained to standard values, the cost efficiency has to be validated and the efficiency of performance has to be estimated.