A Theory of Vulnerability of Water Pipe Network (TVWPN)

The main objective of this paper is to introduce the proposed theory of vulnerability of water pipe network (TVWPN) and, in particular, its theoretical concepts. These concepts have a basis in the structural vulnerability theory (Agarwal et al., Civ Eng Environ Syst 18(2):141–165, <CitationRef CitationID="CR2">2001a</CitationRef>, J Struct Saf 23(3):203–220, <CitationRef CitationID="CR3">2001b</CitationRef>; Lu et al., Struct Eng 77(18):17–23, <CitationRef CitationID="CR12">1999</CitationRef>; Lu <CitationRef CitationID="CR11">1998</CitationRef>; Pinto <CitationRef CitationID="CR14">2002</CitationRef>; Pinto et al., J Struct Saf 24:107–122, <CitationRef CitationID="CR15">2002</CitationRef>; Yu <CitationRef CitationID="CR19">1997</CitationRef>). The fundamental contribution of this theory is to help design water pipe networks (WPN) more robust against damage to the pipelines. This is achieved through an analysis of the form of the network. The application of the TVWPN is presented through an example of a water pipe network. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010