OptWatNet - A Software for the Optimal Design of Water-Using Networks with Multi-contaminants

This paper presents a new user friendly software, OptWatNet, for the design of water using networks with multiple water sources and contaminants. It can handle four alternative solution strategies that differ in the initialization method used prior to the solution of the nonlinear program (NLP). OptWatNet provides an interface for easy data input, which is then converted to the GAMS format and included in the files that comprise the general linear (LP)/NLP models. Once the problem is solved, OptWatNet is able to draw the water networks corresponding to the solutions resulting from the different strategies. Overall, it is a powerful tool that can be used to easily evaluate alternative design options and compare the several strategies with respect to quality of the best solution obtained, quality of the initialization procedure and total computational effort.