The Bi-objective Problem of Distribution of Oil Products by Pipeline Networks Approached by a Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

The distribution of petroleum products through pipeline networks is an important problem that arises in production planning of refineries. It consists in determining what will be done in each production stage given a time horizon, concerning the distribution of products from source nodes to demand nodes, passing through intermediate nodes. Constraints concerning storage limits, delivering time, sources availability, among others, have to be satisfied. This problem can be viewed as a bi-objective problem that aims at minimizing time and the successive transmission of different products in the same pipe. In this paper, a discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm is applied to this problem. The results obtained with the proposed approach are compared with the results obtained by two genetic algorithms proposed previously for the problem.