A ground-breaking mission that’s enabling steady distant monitoring of a 16km trunk major has been recognised on the Water Business Awards.
The Blairlinnans SoundPrint Acoustic Fibre Optic System, a joint mission between Xylem and Scottish Water – and described as a European first, was named Asset Administration Initiative of the 12 months on the awards ceremony on 4 July 2024.
The Blairlinnans water major is a 42 inch (1,067mm) pre-stressed concrete (PSC) pipeline that runs from the Blairlinnans Water Therapy Works to a service reservoir in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The pipeline was put in in 1974 and is essential to the continued operation of Scottish Water’s provide community.
Scottish Water recognized the principle as a high-risk asset, which prompted a whole engineering evaluation to grasp its true situation and forestall an sudden burst.
Inspections utilizing Xylem’s SmartBall and PipeDiver applied sciences supplied the info essential to conduct a radical engineering evaluation. The insights confirmed whereas a lot of the pipeline was in good situation, a number of sections had damaged pre-stressed wires, that are essential to help operational pressures. If the wires break, a trunk major can lose its structural integrity, with a threat of failure.
Within the first mission of its sort in Europe, Scottish Water chosen Xylem’s SoundPrint Acoustic Fibre Optic (AFO) system to repeatedly monitor sections of the pipeline. SoundPrint AFO detects breaks within the pre-stressing wire that maintain PSC pipelines collectively.
The system set-up includes bundled, strengthened fibre-optic cable fed although the water major, which is related to an information acquisition system to watch the acoustic exercise in close to real-time. If a wire break happens, it’s detected by the AFO system, which is related to Xylem’s AFO analysts through the mobile community.
Wire break occasions are investigated by the analysts and with the assistance of machine studying, the break location is pinpointed. An e-mail notification is shipped to the shopper and the outcomes posted on a cloud-based system, which shows the pipeline standing on colour-coded dashboards.
The monitoring, mixed with additional evaluation by Xylem’s engineering service, permits utilities to make proactive selections about which sections of pipe should be changed or repaired as deterioration continues over time.
Ian Dunsmore, workforce chief – strategic water infrastructure at Scottish Water, mentioned: “Substitute of main pipelines is usually value prohibitive, extraordinarily complicated and causes main disruption – nonetheless it’s uncommon that your complete pipeline must be changed.
“Leveraging Xylem’s AFO system and engineering expertise enabled us to grasp the true situation of the Blairlinnans water major at a single time limit and trust that the pipeline is being constantly monitored for any additional deterioration. It’s nice information that the success of this joint initiative has been recognised by the sector.”
Andrew Welsh, water utility director at Xylem mentioned: “Xylem is extraordinarily proud that this modern partnership with Scottish Water has been recognised by the Water Business Awards.
“The AFO system has enabled Scottish Water to scale back the chance of failure by pre-emptively repairing areas identified to be in poor situation, make important value financial savings by extending the lifetime of remaining pipe sections and minimise disruptions to clients, whereas sustaining the utility’s status as a forward-thinking, dependable service supplier.”
