Optimal Design and Benefit/Cost Analysis of Reservoir Dams by Genetic Algorithms Case Study: Sonateh Dam, Kordistan Province, Iran

This paper presents a method concerning the integration of the benefit/cost analysis and the real genetic algorithm with various elements of reservoir dam design. The version 4.0 of HEC-RAS software and Hydro-Rout models have been used to simulate the region and flood routing in the reservoir of the dam, respectively. A mathematical programming has been prepared in MATLAB software and linked with the optimal programming then employed to maximize the benefit/cost ratio of the reservoir dam construction. After a sensitivity analysis, mutation and crossover probability are assumed to be 0.05 and 0.7, respectively. The objective function of the study is benefit/cost ratio. The combined methodology has been provided to help to compute the optimal normal water level, length of spillway and downstream levee height of a reservoir dam considering flood control and cost of construction. This is the first attempt to optimize these important parameters, in the construction of a reservoir dam, together considering flood control and economical aspects. It has been displayed that the proposed method provides strong and suitable solutions to determine these parameters. The results showed that there is potential for application of genetic algorithms to such optimization problems, where the objective function is nonlinear and other optimization techniques may be troublesome to apply and find the global optimum.