Author(s)

P. Bieupoude, Y. Azoumah & P. Neveu

Abstract

In this paper two optimal tree-shaped networks for drinking water and irrigation are constructed by using the constructal approach coupled with the exergy destruction minimization method. It is shown that in the construction of treeshaped network for water distribution, the method of exergy destruction minimization is equivalent to minimizing mechanical irreversibility under a water quality constraint. For both energy consumption and the fluid quality degradation appearing in the network, this study offers new interesting routes for optimizing the system either by the exergy destruction minimization (in that case, both irreversible processes are taken into account in the optimization procedure) or by minimizing one of the two irreversible processes, the other being taken into account as optimization constraint. This paper shows that, for the improvement of performances it is important to focus on the design of an efficient distribution network rather than enhancing only the transport properties. Keywords: water distribution network, constructal theory, exergy, optimization drinking water, irrigation. 1 Introduction Several areas of engineering involve tree-shaped networks: electronic components cooling Bejan [1], heat and mass transfer in a solid-gas reactive porous media Azoumah et al. [2] or most generally flow structures [3, 4]. The optimal implementation of these flow systems depends greatly on their irreversibilities minimization. For the specific case of water piping systems two

Keywords

water distribution network, constructal theory, exergy, optimization drinking water, irrigation