ABSTRACT

The designating factors in the design of branched irrigation networks are the cost of pipes and the pumping cost. They both depend directly on the hydraulic head of the pump. It is mandatory for this reason to calculate the optimal head of the pump as well as the corresponded optimal pipe diameters, in order to derive the minimal total cost of the irrigation network. The certain calculating methods in identified the above total cost that have been derived are: the linear programming optimization method, the non linear programming optimization method, the dynamic programming optimization method and the Labye’s method. All above methods have grown independently and a comparative study between them has not yet been derived. In this paper, a comparative calculation of the pump optimal head as well as the corresponded economic pipe diameters, using the dynamic programming method and the Labye’s optimization method is presented. Application and comparative evaluation in a particular irrigation network is, also, developed. From the study it is being held that the two optimization methods in fact conclude to the same result and therefore can be applied with no distinction in the studying of the branched hydraulic networks.