ABSTRACT
Water utilities use pressure control to reduce back ground leakage and the incidence of pipe bursts. Control is usually implemented across areas that are typically supplied through pressure reducing valves and closed at all other boundaries (Alonso et al., 2000; Ulanicki et al., 2000; Prescott et al., 2005). Single-feed PRV schemes are often adopted for ease of control and monitoring but risk supply interruption in the event of failure. Multi-feed systems improve the security of supply but are more complex and incur the risk of PRV interaction leading to instability (Ulanicki et al., 2000; Prescott and Ulanicki, 2004). A better understanding of the dynamics of PRVs and networks will lead to improve control strategies and reduce both instabilities and leakage.
