In urban engineering, the connections among streets, pipes, and drainage in the real world are complex. We often view streets, pipes, and drainage as separate systems, but they are physically and functionally interconnected. A pavement on a highway serves as a structural cover for buried infrastructure, and that buried infrastructure in turn uses the highway as a means of access, protection, and service. Therefore, when one infrastructure asset performs, they all perform:
- A leaking buried water main may cause premature failure of a highway pavement due to saturation.
- Premature failure of a highway pavement can cause premature failure of a buried water main due to excessive loading from vehicle traffic.
By ignoring these interdependencies, we risk the quality and efficiency of maintenance cycles, therefore leading to engineering failures.
This assignment will focus on:
- Evaluating how different civil engineering systems function together as one;
- Develop an integration context;
- Analyze integrated maintenance strategies;
- Develop a Life-Cycle Inventory and a Life-Cycle Analysis for the integrated civil systems;
- Applying multi-objective optimization techniques to identify the best maintenance strategy.