Dam’s predictive maintenance system based on its twin-model development

Details

Acronym: TWIN-DAM
Reference: CPP2021-008474
Partners: Universitat Politecnica de Valencia and Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables.
Duration: 01/10/2022 – 30/09/2025 (36 months)
Budget: 607.084 €
Co-Financing: Strategic Lines Call 2022. State Plan for Scientific, Technical Research and Innovation 2021-2023. Ministry of Science and Innovation. Project CPP2021-008474 is financed by the MCIN/AEI (10.13039/501100011033) and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/ PRTR

Overview of the project

As dams hold back large volumes of water, a sub-standard construction, natural disasters, sabotage, lack of maintenance and the extreme influx of water can be catastrophic to downriver settlements and infrastructures. According to studies carried out by the World Bank, adequate infrastructure conservation requires an annual investment of around 2% of its asset value, which would be equivalent to €600 Million.

Consequently, the objective of this project is to develop a low-cost innovative predictive-maintenance system for constructed gravity dams, based on the monitoring and diagnosis of several key parameters. To do so, the system will be able to determine the following parameters:

  • leaks’ location;
  • characterisation and origin of vibrations; and
  • movements experienced by the dam.

Based on these, the system will carry out advanced data processing through the development of the dam’s Finite Element Model and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to predict the future structural behaviour of the dam under the measured parameters to be able to apply a predictive maintenance philosophy.

The solution will diagnose the dam’s structural health through its instrumentation and the development of a digital twin to predict the maintenance needed for its optimal functioning.

The SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES to be achieved are the following:

  1. Real-time parameter measurement hardware subsystem design and development.
  2. Design and development of a software subsystem that allows the implementation of predictive maintenance philosophies in the dam.
  3. Low-cost, high-performance wireless communication subsystem design and development.
  4. Prototype development and validation in a real operational environment.

After the first prototype has been validated, a Digital Platform will be developed and a more robust packaged prototype will be designed to be able to validate the system in a more aggressive environment, such as a real dam. This industrial packaged prototype will be installed in a dam and the collected and processed data will be accessible through the Digital Platform to fully test its operative capacities and advantages.

Deriving from the objectives defined, the MAIN INNOVATION of the project is the possibility of obtaining predictive diagnoses of the structural condition of the monitored dam. The proposed lowcost system allows to monitor any type of dam and to elaborate predictive models about the evolution of its structural parameters, being able to implement a predictive maintenance philosophy.

The project TWIN-DAM (CPP2021-008474), coordinated by ITER’s Technology area, is financiaded by the MCIN/AEI (10.13039/501100011033) and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/ PRTR.

CALL TECHNOLOGY AREA