Design of optimal irrigation networks

What is it about?

The problem of selecting the best pattern of pipe diameters of an irrigation network has long been given considerable attention by engineers when designing hydraulic works. The classical optimization techniques, which have been proposed until now, are the following: (1) the linear programming method; (2) the nonlinear programming method; (3) the dynamic programming method; and (4) Labye’s method. Mathematical research of the problem, using the previous methods, is very complex, and for this reason the numerical solution calls for a lot of calculations, especially in the case of a network with many branches. In this study, the formulation of a new simplified nonlinear programming method is presented, which can replace the existing ones with the best results. A comparative evaluation between the proposed simplified method and the general nonlinear programming method in a particular irrigation network is also developed. The results of the proposed simplified method are fully identical with the results of the nonlinear programming method. Consequently, this method can be equally used for the classical methods.

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Why is it important?

It is proposed a simplified method, which is indeed very simple to handle and for practical uses it requires only a handheld calculator and just a few numerical calculations. Consequently, the simplified method can be equally used for the classical optimization techniques, which have been proposed until now, such as (1) the linear programming method; (2) the nonlinear programming method; (3) the dynamic programming method; and (4) Labye’s method.