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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/S17512/01
Title: Prioritising the Maintenance of Sub-Critical Sewerage Assets within the Context of Serviceability Using FMECA
Principal Investigator: Arthur, Professor S
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Babtie Ltd Scottish Water Water Industry Commission for Scotland
Department: Sch of the Built Environment
Organisation: Heriot-Watt University
Scheme: First Grant Scheme Pre-FEC
Starts: 18 August 2003 Ends: 17 August 2006 Value (£): 120,928
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Information & Knowledge Mgmt Safety & Reliability of Plant
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
There is a concerted move to focus on serviceability as a key performance indicator in sewerage provision. Serviceability covers not only general service provision, but also socio-economic factors and environmental impacts. The lack of an accepted method to economically and sustainably programme the maintenance of non-critical sewers is of concern. The planned research aims to develop failure mode effect and criticality analysis (FMECA - a method used in the aerospace and offshore industries) as a tool that can be used by sewerage asset managers to proactively manage capital maintenance expenditure within the context of serviceability to customers, the public and the environment. Existing asset management models used throughout the world can be of the black-box type, data-hungry or have no pedigree, and hence there is a lack of usable tools for practitioners in this area. The proposed research will focus on an area where there is genuine need for guidance, and offer a step-change in the methods used by practitioners. The proposed approach is unique as it will provide a method which has a strong track record in other industries, is auditable and is flexible enough to be applied where data histories may be incomplete. The proposal has been developed in consultation with the water industry, its regulators and asset management consultants.
Key Findings
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Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.hw.ac.uk