WRF 4882: Development of Protocols and Methods for Predicting the Remaining Economic Life of Wastewater Pipe Infrastructure Assets

THE REMAINING ECONOMIC LIFE ANALYSIS OF FORCE MAIN PIPES (RELAY-FM) TOOL

Performance prediction modeling is a crucial step in assessing the remaining service life of pipelines. Sound infrastructure deterioration models are essential for accurately predicting future performance that, in turn, are critical tools for efficient maintenance, repair and rehabilitation decision making. The objective of this research is to develop a gravity and force main pipe performance deterioration model for predicting the remaining economic life of wastewater pipe for infrastructure asset management. For condition assessment of gravity pipes, the defect indices currently in practice, use CCTV inspection and a defect coding scale to assess the internal condition of the wastewater pipes. Unfortunately, in practice, the distress indices are unable to capture all the deterioration mechanisms and distresses on pipes to provide a comprehensive and accurate evaluation of the pipe performance. Force main pipes present a particular challenge in performance prediction modeling. The consequence of failure can be higher for the force mains relative to the gravity pipes which increases the risk associated with these assets. However, unlike gravity pipes, there are no industry standards for inspection and condition assessment for force mains. Furthermore, accessibility issues for inspections add to this challenge.

Data Standardization for the RELAY Tool.

Under Water Environmental & Reuse Foundation (WE&RF)’s Strategic Asset Management (SAM) Challenge, there was a planned three-phase development of this performance prediction model. The Remaining Economic Life AnalYsis (RELAY) Tool was developed as a result of this research. This research provides utility managers an accurate technique for predicting wastewater pipeline performance and estimating remaining life and asset deterioration curve.

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