Reliability Engineering and System Safety 42 (1993) 21-27

Water distribution valve topology for

reliability analysis
T h o m a s M. Walski
Wilkes University, PO Box 111, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 18766, USA

This paper points out the importance of adequate valving in providing water
distribution system reliability and the problems in assessing the reliability of a
water distribution system, using a link-node representation commonly found
in pipe network models. The paper suggests using an approach involving
'segments' of a distribution system that can be isolated with valves as the basic
unit for assessing reliability, and illustrates the use of a graphical approach to
analyze the adequacy of valving.

increased reliability, but the impact diminished with

INTRODUCTION
Most techniques for quantitatively analyzing water
distribution system reliability have at their heart some
type of hydraulic pipe network model. The hydraulic
model represents the real water distribution system as
a collection of links (pipes) and nodes (junctions).
While this representation is very good for hydraulic
analysis, it has some weaknesses when used to
evaluate the reliability of a system.
The key weakness in the link-node representation
is correctly describing what happens when a pipe
breaks and must be isolated for maintenance or
repair. Most investigators represent a pipe being out
of service by removing the link associated with that
pipe from the hydraulic model. For example, Goulter
and Coals I equate a link with a pipe in a network
model. Ormsbee and Kessler 3 and Tung et al.3 use the
word 'components' when discussing reliability, but
equate a water distribution component with a link in a
pipe network model. The remainder of this paper will
demonstrate that the link-node representation can be
misleading and will propose and illustrate an
alternative representation for identifying how valving
effects the portion of the system that is out of service.
Bouchart and Goulter 4 are the only researchers to
consider valve location explicitly in a reliability
analysis. They assumed that each pipe link initially
had a valve at each end and they determined the
number of 'interior valves' to improve reliability.
They found that the first few valves significantly
Reliability Engineering and System Safety 0951-8320/93/$06.00
© 1993 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd, England.
21
each new valve added.
PROBLEMS WITH LINK-NODE
REPRESENTATION
Importance of valves
The most important problem with the link-node
representation is that it fails to account for the way
that pipes are connected in real water distribution
systems and how they are isolated for repair. Pipes are
isolated by closing valves along a pipe. In real water
distribution systems these valves are not necessarily
located at the end of each pipe. Instead of removing a
single link when a pipe is taken out of service, the
utility removes an irregular shaped collection of links
and nodes. (A related problem is that not all valves
can be located and operated even if they did exist.)
Valves are the key to providing water distribution
system reliably. A system without valves would be
completely crippled during every pipe break or
maintenance event requiring a shutdown. Not enough
attention has been given to the importance of valves
and their placement in distribution systems.
Bouchart and Goulter 4 and other researchers
assumed that individual pipe links could be isolated
with valves at each end. This is not current practice in
the water industry. If there are n pipe links coming
into an intersection, there will almost always be fewer
than n valves in that intersection.
To quantify the error introduced by assuming each
pipe link has a valve at each end, the author examined
22 Thomas M. Walski

the link-node representation for a detailed pipe

network model of a portion of the Austin, Texas,
I- I I I
water distribution system (Sheet F-37). Of the 59 links
in that area, 34% had no valves, 42% had one valve,
16% a valve at each end, 3% had two valves (but not A I -~- I I I
at each end) and 3% had three valves. This section is
typical of the author's experience with many other
I I I
water systems. Therefore, assuming that it is possible
to isolate individual pipe links is incorrect.

Simple intersection
I
Consider the intersection of pipes 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Fig. I I
I I
1. If one of the pipes connected at that intersection
should fail and must be shut down, the link-node
B It--><-~-I
representation would only be accurate in case A in
which each link had an operable valve at each end. As
demonstrated above, this is generally not the case.
+, +,
In practice, most design engineers would not place
four valves at a cross-type intersection as shown in
Fig. 1. Two or three valves at such an intersection are I- I I I I
about all that are usually included, as shown in case B
where a failure in pipe 1 will take portions of links 2, 3 A B
or 4 out of service. In case B, a failure in pipe 1 would C I I I-~t I I
also take the intersection of the four pipes out of
service.
Another way of connecting pipes in an intersection i i I 1

is case C in which the pipes are in separate planes and

are connected by a short 'dogleg' connection with a
- - - - LINE IN SERVICE
valve. In this case a shutdown of pipe 1 would
. . . . . LINE OUT OF SERVICE
automatically take out link 3, but would not take out VALVE IN LINE
links 2 and 4, and would leave links 2 and 4
connected.
X BREAK LOCATION

Fig. 2. Extent of outage due to piping break.

Grid system

Now consider a more common situation of a gridded
pipe network shown in Fig. 2(A). As shown in Fig.
2(B), a pipe failure at point X would remove four
links and three nodes from the pipe network. An
eight-valve shutoff for a single pipe repair is not a
desirable situation, but does occur regularly, espe-
cially in systems without regular valve maintenance.
Figure 2(C) shows that if valves are installed and
operable at points A and B, then the failure would
only take one link and no nodes out of service.

Transmission versus distribution

The representation of the distribution system in the

model is especially difficult in the case of a pipe
network model that combines large transmission
mains with smaller distribution mains. Just as
interstate highways have no intersections or traffic
MODEL
lights, large transmission mains have few connections
with the water distribution grid and few valves.
2
Figure 3 shows such a case where a 36 in (900 mm)
water transmission main shares the north-south
right-of-way with an 8 in (200 mm) distribution main.
In good design, the two sets of pipes are somewhat
/\ B C isolated so that a failure of the 36 in has little direct
Fig. 1. Alternative vaiving at node. effect on the distribution grid while a failure in the
 Water distribution valve topology
8"
8" 36" i"
AJ
+~ 6"
12"
MODEL
SYSTEM
Fig. 3. Example with distribution and transmission mains in
same right-of-way.
distribution grid would have little impact on the 36 in
pipe. For convenience, though, many modelers would
represent each intersection as a single node as shown
in the model representation on the right of the figure
(or might even eliminate the 8in north-south pipe
because its carrying capacity is negligible when
compared with the 36 in).
Hydraulically, the model representation in Fig. 3
would work very well. Now suppose that a break
occurred at point A as shown in the smaller
illustration. The model would need to be broken as
shown. A link and node would need to be removed.
The implication is that the topology of the system
changes with each pipe outage and the traditional way
of representing this interaction is inaccurate.
The above examples illustrate that the key factor in
analyzing the hydraulics of a distribution system
during an outage is knowing the location of operable
valves and reorganizing the system to reflect the
extent of the shutdown due to the outage. Simply
removing a pipe link from a model is misleading.
Importance of laterals
Another problem is that, in determining the reliability
of an individual pipe link, most investigators assume
that a pipe has a failure rate associated with a single
diameter and is made of a uniform material. The 36 in
pipe in Fig. 3 would have a very low break rate
associated with it because of the low break rate
generally associated with large mains.
However, many large transmission mains often have
drain hydrants at low points so that the pipe can be
drained for maintenance. A typical such installation is
shown in Fig. 4. The reliability of the entire 36 in
(91.4 cm) pipe is reduced by the fact that a failure in
the 6in (15.2cm) hydrant lateral can take a large
section of the 36 in line out of service. (Because of
23
S 36" PIPE
y 6" PIPE
S VALVE
HYDRANT
'
Y
Fig. 4. Example showing lateral as part of transmission
main.
their cost, valves are used very sparingly in large
transmission mains; e.g. a 36 in gate valve costs in the
order of $40 000). Reliability analysis needs to account
for the chance of an outage in laterals and service
lines that cannot be isolated from the large main.
ALTERNATIVE TOPOLOGY
The preceding section demonstrated that the location
and condition of isolating valves significantly impact
the extent of an outage due to a pipe failure or other
maintenance event which may require taking a pipe
out of service. Simply removing a link from a
hydraulic model does not capture the effect of a pipe
outage in most instances.
Distribution system segments
What is needed is a way of describing the portion of a
water distribution system that can be isolated by
closing valves. This author has used the word
'segment' to describe such a pipe or collection of
pipes 5 and to highlight the difference between a
segment and a network model link. Figure 5 shows the
network for Fig. 2 broken into segments.
Segments provide a way for a water utility to assess
quickly the susceptibility of a system to a single pipe
break. Figure 5 shows that a break in segment 2 would
require turning a large number of valves to achieve a
shutout and would leave a fairly large number of
customers without water.
If the segments could be shown in color on a map or
a computer monitor, it would be very easy to identify
segments that are likely to magnify a small pipe break
into a major shutdown. A color graphics display of
segments would be helpful to a utility in determining
if the distribution system has adequate valving.
24 Thomas M. Walski

_L
--4!. ..... L{_
!6
,
i

:
t
~4-
I

,
_:
bl

t_,t
~1
1

i i
............
. . . . . . . . . .
1

2
43
,.5
2/
t'
Fig. 5. Distribution segments in example.

Fig. 7. Example distribution system.

-(

Fig. 6. Graph of segments shown in Fig. 5.

In addition, the delineation of segments makes it

possible to apply graph theory to pipe networks. Each
segment can be represented as a node while each
valve can be represented by an arc. The utility can
bring to bear the power of graph theory to identify
weaknesses in the system. Figure 6 shows such a
representation of the pipe network in Fig. 5.
At first, representing a valve as an arc seems
couterintuitive because valves are small and are
located at a single point, and would seem best
represented by nodes. However, a valve has two ends
like an arc while a segment may have many valves
associated with it like a node.
'Segments' as used in this paper differ from what
Bouchart and Goulter 4 refer to as distribution
segments. They defined a new segment as starting
whenever the demand along the link or the diameter
changed. Such a definition is contrary to this author's
intent because it obscures the purpose of segments
(i.e. to provide a way to identify which portions of a
distribution system can be isolated). This author
suggests use of the word 'subsegment' for what
Bouchart and Goulter called segments.
Example of valving problem
Some systems may look to be highly reliable looped
water distribution systems when they are viewed on
system maps. However, because of the lack of valves,
there may be very few segments, so that the reliability
is very low.
Consider the distribution system shown in Fig. 7. A
Fig. 8. Graph of segments from Fig. 7.
customer at point A may feel fairly secure in that he is
located on a loop served by another loop. However,
suppose there is a break at point X. The customer
would be without water because of the lack of valves.
The graph of that system in Fig. 8 shows that
segments 2 and 7 need additional valving to make the
system reliable. This situation could not be readily
identified from a map of the distribution system.
APPLICATION
Manual versus automated analysis
At present, manually identifying segments in a real
water distribution system for all but the simplest
systems is tedious. However, it can be very helpful in
identifying potentially troublesome situations. Linking
software to automate this process with standard
graphics packages shows promise as a reproducible
method to assess the adequacy of valves in the future.
Graphing segments of a distribution system can help
identify which segments are critical because they are
the only path to some portion of the system. In
addition, the number of arcs attached to a segment
indicates the number of valves that must be operated
to isolate the segment. This number should not be too
great because a shutdown will be time consuming and
 Water distribution valve topology
the probability that one of the valves not working is
high.
Until software is developed to automate valve
graphs, design engineers will be required to draw
segments manually and use old rules of thumb such as
'no more than four valves should be needed to isolate
any pipe break' and 'no single pipe outage should be
capable of wiping out all feeds to a given area'.
Identifying critical segments
Once the graph has been constructed, it is not too
difficult to examine manually the graph for critical
nodes. In addition, algorithms from graph theory can
be applied to find critical segments quickly.
One, approach to determine if a node is critical is to
conduct a 'breath-first' search 6 of each tree emanating
from a segment (node). If one of the trees located
during these searches is disjoint (i.e. has no nodes in
common with other trees from this node), then that
node is a critical node. This can easily be extended to
pairs of nodes that are connected by combining them
into one node to simulate the case where a valve is
unavailable (i.e. exists but is not operable).
Design implications
There is no rigid rule that says a distribution segment
should be able to be isolated with the turning of four
valves or less. Instead, it is simply a case that the
probability of being unable to isolate a segment
increases with the number of valves in that segment.
The tradeoffs between the cost of valves and the
increase in reliability they provide should prove to be
a good research topic.
The fewer valves that need to be turned, the more
likely a segment will be isolated successfully. If a valve
cannot be operated, the size of the area that must be
shutdown grows and the probability that another
inoperable valve will be encountered means that a
shutdown for a single maintenance event can involve
many customers.
For example, if the probability that a valve cannot
be found or used is 0-1, the probability of not being
able to operate both valves for a two-valve shutdown
is 0.19. The probability of not being able to operate
four valves for a shutdown is 0-34 and the probability
of not being able to operate eight valves is 0.57.
Component reliability
Unfortunately, not many data exist on the availability
of distribution system valves. This author has worked
with numerous systems and would estimate that this
value can range from 0.02 (2% unavailable) to 0.33
(one-third of valves unavailable). These availabilities
are inversely related to the extent of valve
maintenance and exercising practiced by the utility
25
and the age of the system. Work is needed to quantify
these relationships.
Cullinane7 summarized data from the Environmen-
tal Protection Agency on valve availability and found
gate valves in wastewater treatment plants to have
reliability in excess of 0.999. These data are not
consistent with the author's experience of water
distribution valves. This is due to (1) the treatment
plant valves being used routinely, and (2) the relative
newness of treatment plant valves in comparison with
many distribution systems. Wastewater treatment
plant valves tend to be less than 20 years old, while
distribution system valves are often older than 50
years old.
Data presented by Cullinane7 showed a mean time
between failures for gate valves of the order of 1 year
and a mean time to repair of the order of 4 h. While
these numbers are not unreasonable for above ground
valves, they do not include the time to locate and
identify inoperable valves which can be many hours in
most water distribution systems. There are no data on
the inability to locate valves.
LARGE SCALE EXAMPLE
To determine if the concepts presented above are
applicable to real water distribution systems, a graph
of valves and segments was prepared for a roughly
one square mile (2-59 km 2) portion of Austin, Texas,
water distribution system, as shown in Fig. 9. (The
actual distribution system map (Sheet F-37) is too
complicated to show in this paper.)
This portion of the system is made up primarily of 6
and 8 in (150 and 200 mm) pipes, which are fed from a
few loops of 12 in (300 mm) pipe. (The 12 in valves
are the arcs with the heavy line thickness.) Flow
reaches this area from the bottom and right side of the
figure. The example illustrates several good features
of this approach to assessing the adequacy of valves.
The first point is that segments 1, 100 and 101 are
the only way to serve the nodes in the 100s. This is
because the segments in the 100s are part of a
municipal utility district that purchases its water from
Austin through a master meter located in segment
100. From the map of the system, this feature is not
obvious, but from the graph in Fig. 9, it can readily be
identified. In this case, having all of the flow pass
through a single segment is intentional. Usually,
having all the flow to an area pass through a single
segment is highly undesirable, but often missed.
The next interesting segments are segments 33 and
34. Segment 33 is a fairly important pipe while
segment 34 is a small circle off the main street. The
map of the actual piping in that area is shown in Fig.
10(A). Having two feeds to segment 34 is not helpful
if segment 33 should be taken out of service. A better
26 Thomas M. Walski

< 12 IN. VALVES

12 IN, VALVES

Fig. 9. Full-scale application.

arrangement is shown in Fig. 10(B) where a valve is
installed, breaking segment 33 into two segments so
that 34 could be fed even if there is a shutdown for
one portion of 33. In general, having two segments
connected by more than one valve is a poor use of
valves.
Figure 9 shows a number of segments with only a
single source. In general, this is not good design, but
in this case it is acceptable in that these represent
small cul-de-sac type streets. For example, segments
47 and 48 have a total of 12 homes served by the

~ (a)
33
segments. Cul-de-sacs and dead ends are a result of
modern development patterns which shy away from
grid layouts. While this may be esthetically pleasing, it
reduces the reliability of the water supply to
customers living on these dead ends.
The most interesting feature of Fig. 9 is segment 1,
which shows that there are nine valves connected to
this segment. Actually it would require operation of
eight of the valves to be shut to isolate this segment
because there are no sources in the area beyond
33B

34•_
segment 100.
However, eight valves is too many to have to
33A operate to shut off such an important segment.
Segment 1 is also a half mile (0-8 km) long which
means there is a high probability of a pipe break. To
(b)
make matters worse, a few of the fire hydrants along
Fig. 10. Map of the actual piping. segment 100 do not have isolating valves, so that a car
 Water distribution valve topology
striking a hydrant can cut off water for about
one-third of the customers in Fig. 9.
One or two additional valves in semgnet 1 would
greatly improve the utility's ability to shut down an
area for repair without depriving water to all the
customers in segments 100 and greater. The only
other segments requiring a five-valve shutoff are 32,
107 and 112 and none of those segments are quite as
critical at 1.
SUMMARY
The link-node representation is not a completely
acceptable way of analyzing water distribution systems
for reliability because it does not account for the
importance of valves in the distribution system and
their effect on isolating or exaggerating the impact of
a pipe break or maintenance event. Valves are the key
to providing system reliability.
Identifying 'segments', which are a portion of the
water distribution system that can be isolated by
valves, provides a way to identify if adequate valving
is present in a water distribution system. An approach
to evaluate graphically the adequacy of valving is
proposed and demonstrated.
27
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author wishes to acknowledge the help of Dr Jie
Wang of the Wilkes University Department of
Computer Science.
REFERENCES
1. Goulter, I. C. & Coals, A. V., Quantitative approaches
to reliability assessment in pipe networks. J. Transport.
Engng., 1121 (3) (1986) 287.
2. Ormsbee, L. E. & Kessler, A., Optimal upgrading of
hydraulic network reliability. J. Water Resources
Planning and Manage., 116 (6) (1992) 784.
3. Tung, Y. K., Mays, L. W. & Cullinane, M. J.,
Reliability analysis of systems. In Reliability Analysis of
Water Distribution Systems, ed. L. W. Mays. ASCE,
New York, 1989, pp. 260-98.
4. Bouchart, F. & Goulter, I. C., Improvements in design
of water distribution networks recognizing valve location.
Water Resources Res., 27 (12) (1991) 3029.
5. Walski, T. M., Discussion of 'Quantitative Approaches
to Reliability Assessment in Pipe Networks. J. Transport.
Engng, 113 (5) (1987) 585.
6. Horowitz, E. & Sahni, S., Fundamentals of Computer
Algorithms, Computer Science Press, 1978.
7. Cullinane, M. J., Reliability and maintainability data for
water distribution system components. In Reliability
Analysis of Water Distribution Systems, ed. L. W. Mays.
ASCE, New York, 1989, pp 190-225.