A consortium of local and international university and industry bodies have launched the Advanced Condition Assessment and Failure Prediction Technologies for Optimal Management of Critical Pipes project. Considered one of the world's largest water infrastructure projects, the system will work towards improving the accuracy of current condition assessment tools for detecting portential failure in Sydney's major water pipes.

 

The project is being led Monash University and Sydney Water with teams from leading water and environmental agencies from across Australia, the United Kingdom, the USA and Canada.

 

"These are huge pipes that we're dealing with – the main trunks of the Sydney Water system's pipe network – and they carry thousands of megalitres of water over thousands of kilometres every day," said Dr Jaime Valls Miro, an Associate Professor in the Centre for Autonomous Systems at University of Technology Sydney.

 

"Like all infrastructure, they can be subject to wear and tear if appropriate measures aren't taken to keep them maintained."

 

Recent findings have shown that measurements from the current assessment tools being used by water companies around the world do not provide sufficiently reliable information to make accurate predictions about imminent pipe failures and other malfunctions.

 

"For Sydney inhabitants, the project should lead to fewer interruptions to water supply by reducing the capacity for catastrophic failure in the Sydney pipe system," Dr Valls Miro said.

 

"In turn, this should lead to better water quality, due to decreased leaks and leaching of materials from the pipe walls into the water."