Design optimization of wastewater collection networks by PSO

Optimal design of wastewater collection networks is addressed in this paper by making use of the so-called PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) technique. This already popular evolutionary technique is adapted for dealing both with continuous and discrete variables as required by this problem. An example of a wastewater collection network is used to show the algorithm performance and the obtained results are compared with those given by using dynamic programming to solve the same problem under the same conditions. PSO is shown to be a promising method to solve optimal design problems regarding, in particular, wastewater collection networks, according to the results herein obtained.