Uncertainty Analysis for Natural Gas Transport Pipeline Network Layout: A New Methodology Based on Monte Carlo Method

Table 1

Advantages and limitations of existing methods.

Methods	Advantages	Limitations
Graph Theory	Easy access to computer program processing; higher computing efficiency; effectively solving the shortest tree problem within a large scale network	Only solves the network layout among known fixed points; project investment costs are not considered; solutions can only be used as the initial network layout
Dynamic Programming	Solving optimization problems with multiple decision-making variables	Not suitable for dealing with large-scale network systems, dimension obstacles exist in solution process
Neural Network Method	Solving optimization problems with multiple decision-making variables	Only obtaining the local optimal solution
Genetic Algorithm	Higher adaptability that can overcome the difficulties of solving nonlinear optimization	Lower computing efficiency; no effective quantitative analysis concerning algorithm precision, feasibility and computational complexity
Complex Method	The algorithm is simple and suitable for dealing with constrained optimization problems	Unable to deal with multi-variable, multi-constraint optimization problems