US 4,562,552 AGranted

Method and apparatus for controlling pressure and flow in water distribution networks

AssigneesHitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Control Systems, Inc.

InventorsShinichiro Miyaoka, Teruji Sekozawa, Motohisa Funabashi, Shinobu Hayashi

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Abstract

A control method and apparatus incorporate a network model simulating hydraulic phenomena within a water distribution network whereby the pressures and flow rates within the water distribution network are controlled by an optimizing unit for inputting the current total demand as a model input and computing manipulated variables or control amounts for optimizing the pressures and flow rates in accordance with a network algorithm and a correction computing unit for computing the necessary control amount correction values for correcting the deviations from the estimated pressures and flow rates in accordance with a sensitivity matrix indicating the effects of variations in the control amounts on the pressures and flow rates.

Claims3

Dependent claims

In a water distribution network including a plurality of reservoirs, a plurality of flow meters for respectively measuring outlet flow rates of said reservoirs, a plurality of distributing pipes for interconnecting said reservoirs to demand nodes from which water is supplied to respective consumers, a plurality of pressure gauges for measuring respective pressures at selected points on said distributing pipes, and actuating means for varying said flow rates and pressures, a method for controlling the pressures at said selected points and the outlet flow rates of said reservoir comprising the steps of:

preparing a network model of said water distribution network;
estimating demands at said demand nodes from the outlet flow rates measured by said flow meters;
computing control amounts of said actuating means based on the estimated demands at said demand nodes so as to obtain optimum values of said flow rates and said pressures according to said network model;
computing estimated flow rate and pressure values corresponding to said control amounts;
determining a sensitive matrix indicative of affects of small variation of said control amounts on said flow rates and said pressures according to said network model;
obtaining differences between said estimated flow rate and pressure values, the actual flow rate and pressure values measured by said flow meters and said pressure gauges wherein said computed control amounts are applied to said actuating means;
correcting said control amounts by multiplying gains determined on said sensitive matrix;
and
performing an operation by said actuating means in accordance with said corrected control amounts.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.