Economics of Inspection and Condition Assessment of High-Consequence Water Pipeline and Assessing Its Remaining Life
Publication: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 15, Issue 3
Abstract
A probabilistic approach that considers the entire lifecycle cost of the water pipeline, accounting for deterioration rate, failure consequences, cost of rehabilitation, accuracy and cost of inspection/condition assessment, cost of emergency repair versus planned intervention and cost of total pipe replacement was introduced in an earlier paper. The approach allows us to combine expert-opinion (semi-informative assessment) with hard field data. New hard field data (e.g., failure events, inspection/condition assessment results) continually become available throughout the life of the pipeline. This incoming data stream can be incorporated into the analysis to provide robust, well-informed and reproducible assessment of deterioration rate and remaining life. The framework was implemented in an MS-Excel-based decision support tool, referred to as pipeline inspection decision analyzer (PIDA). This paper demonstrates the practical application of the proposed framework in the real world through comprehensive case studies, data for which were obtained from collaborating Canadian and US water utilities and pipeline owners. As is always the case in reality, most pipeline owners did not have all the required data to carry out a fully informed analysis. We illustrate how one might deal with missing data, how PIDA may be used to arrive at well-supported, rational decisions on when to deploy inspection and condition assessment, what techniques/technologies to select among competing ones and when it is time to stop assessing the pipeline condition and plan for replacement. Sensitivity analyses are also conducted to explore how various assumptions, necessitated by uncertainty, may impact analysis results.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions. All data used in this study can be obtained through a publicly available Water Research Foundation report (Rajani and Kleiner 2017). The source code for PIDA is proprietary and confidential.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Water Research Foundation (WRF), with in-kind support from the authors, as well as Canadian and US water utilities and inspection technology providers from Canada, United States, Europe and Australia. The authors are also indebted to the project WRF advisory committee members, namely, John Kennedy (Tampa Bay), Jeff Leighton (Portland), and Joe Thurwanger (Aqua America). Technical Advisory Board members, Chris Macey (AECOM, Winnipeg), Nathan Farber (San Diego), David Marshall (Tarrant), and Roy Brander (Vancouver) also provided valuable input. Rob Raucher (Corona Environmental Consulting), shared data on water failures that he and his team collected on another WRF project. Help from Jian Zhang who served as WRF project manager is also acknowledged.
References
Kleiner, Y., and B. Rajani. 2022. “Economics of inspection and condition assessment of high-consequence pipeline and assessing its remaining life–Theoretical framework.” J. Pipeline Syst. Eng. Pract. 13 (4): 04022041. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)PS.1949-1204.0000681.
Rajani, B., and Y. Kleiner. 2017. Selecting cost-effective condition assessment technologies for high-consequence water mains. Denver: Water Research Foundation.
Romer, A. E., D. Ellison, G. Bell, and B. Clark. 2008. Failure of prestressed concrete cylinder pipe. Denver: Water Research Foundation (AWWA).
Scholten, L., A. Scheidegger, P. Reichert, and M. Maurer. 2013. “Combining expert knowledge and local data for improved service life modeling of water supply networks.” Environ. Modell. Software 42 (Apr): 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2012.11.013.
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© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 5, 2023
Accepted: Feb 14, 2024
Published online: May 21, 2024
Published in print: Aug 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Oct 21, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Benefit cost ratios
- Business management
- Case studies
- Construction engineering
- Construction management
- Construction methods
- Data analysis
- Engineering fundamentals
- Financial management
- Infrastructure
- Inspection
- Methodology (by type)
- Pipeline systems
- Pipelines
- Practice and Profession
- Rehabilitation
- Research methods (by type)
- Sensitivity analysis
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