In the past few decades, researchers have developed various pressure management techniques to control pressure, recover energy, and reduce leakage in water distribution networks. Most of these techniques have been developed and validated under numerical conditions. Only rarely has it been possible to receive feedback from the field after application, creating a gap between the numerical approach and field application. To address this gap, the Experimental Network for the Evaluation of the Digital Twin (E-NET) has been developing at Politecnico di Milano as a scaled laboratory model of a widespread numerical benchmark network to create a bridge between numerical simulations and laboratory practice. In this study, a well-known technique for Pressure Reducing Valves (PRVs) placement was applied to both the original benchmark and the scaled laboratory (E-NET) networks. It was confirmed that leakage reduction, as well as the optimal location and setting of PRVs, remain consistent across both systems. This demonstrates the feasibility of developing methodologies based on the scaled benchmark, thereby opening the way for experimental verification of the proposed methods.
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