Optimal Sensor Placement for BOLTED-GLAND Joints in the Water Pipeline Networks Subjected to Near-Fault and Far-Fault Earthquakes

Water pipeline networks make up vital infrastructures throughout the world. Since water pipelines operate under high pressure, their failure can cause severe damage to human health and property. In this study, the water pipeline network of a district in Tehran was modeled using the Finite Element Method (FEM). Also, different soil-pipe conditions were considered and nonlinear time-history analysis was performed via seismic scaled records of Near-Fault (NF) and Far-Fault (FF) earthquakes. Furthermore, Optimal Sensor Placement (OSP) procedure was done in which a Genetic Algorithm (GA) was selected to act as the solution of the optimization formulation. Only BOLTED-GLAND joints in the modeled network were considered for OSP due to their vulnerability against seismic loads. Unlike the common algorithms that employ modal analysis results, the author proposed a novel numerical approach for OSP that utilizes nonlinear time-history analysis results as an exact seismic response. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the obtained OSP results of NF and FF earthquakes.