Water & Wastewater Asia January/February 2023

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previous generation of Bentley software they used could not easily comprehend its scale and complexity. “Time is of the essence,” said Mark Wong, PUB’s chief engineer of Tuas WRP. “When the project started, we envisaged our engineers using a tablet to deftly open, zoom and review the data-rich model anytime and anywhere.” Hence, to tackle the scale of the project and to render models fast and efficiently, Jacobs and PUB had to update their range of Bentley software. From OpenBuildings and OpenPlant to ProjectWise and iTwin, the new Bentley software that Jacobs and PUB are using allowed the design, engineering, and construction management teams to access the construction models and interfaces anywhere on-site, and also are able to track the progress of the construction in real-time. All these tapped into photogrammetry, which extracts 3D information from photos, digital twins, virtual and augmented realities, model-based tendering, and more. “With the latest Bentley software, it is possible to load the models faster, where unimportant features could be turned off so that they will open easily,” Wong elaborated. The various teams were therefore able to standardise the workflow and data, all while considering each other’s different perspectives and disciplines during construction. One example is using iTwin, Bentley’s digital twinning solution which creates data blueprints of the water reclamation plant in-progress. As Warburton said: “Using the iTwin platform is part of our engineering team’s day-to-day job. Users can go in and navigate easily, as opposed to the old-school method which would have required 2D physical drawings, where they would have to mark all of them up by hand and identify any clashes or errors. All that is over now, and we work in a very close matrix organisation, with the design team working with the other engineering and construction management teams, yet still completing their roles effectively.” 1 2 1 Rendering of Tuas Nexus, comprising of PUB’s Tuas WRP and National Environment Agency (NEA)’s Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) in a simulated model 2 The design, engineering, and project management teams can access the BIM files anytime and anywhere Although Jacobs has rendered about 3,500 building information modelling (BIM) files, they only needed five people in the team to manage them successfully. Even so, there was initial resistance from the contractors to using Bentley software due to the novelty of the work process. However, once the personnel were accustomed to it, once they experienced the benefits first-hand and saw how the software could speed up the project, it become part of their roles. “I believe people usually adopt new technology to make their work and life easier, if it is shown to be the path of least resistance. So, if you can show them that BIM is the path of least resistance — it is very intuitive and quick to use — that really is the game-changer. It has been useful in our project to de-conflict potential clashes at interfaces, and presents more visual information that you would not be able to appreciate on a 2D drawing. And with real-life images taken by the drones or laser scans, you can overlay them on the BIM model to see the actual progress of the project,” said Wong. “THE POTENTIAL FOR ROI” Having invested significantly on BIM, PUB plans to keep the model for future operations and maintenance of Tuas WRP. They believe in the value of investing in BIM, and the returns they bring not only to the plant, but to the water industry and beyond. However, no matter how time- and costsaving using digital twinning and BIM can be, they ultimately need to be useful for the end user and everybody in the ecosystem — be it Jacobs or PUB, or the contractors, the designers or engineers. Warburton concluded: “From a commercial perspective, it is about the return on investment (ROI). If you can do things with less resource and quicker, if you can do them right for the first time with fewer mistakes, you can deliver value back to everybody. Once people see the potential for the ROI, they start to come onboard with the initiative. This is a springboard for future projects in Singapore, we hope to see more of this happening because of the good track record we have experienced at Tuas WRP.” Images: Jacobs and PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency 18 WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023
PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE OF water infrastructure with OpenFlows technology understand what is happening underground in those pipes,” explained Gregg Herrin, vice-president of water infrastructure division in Bentley Systems. “[With OpenFlows], you can make better decisions about your planning, designing, and how to operate the infrastructure.” OPENNESS Interoperable with GIS, SCADA, billing records, and other data formats, OpenFlows takes all the sensor information that comes in, simulates it, and recognises if something in the system is behaving differently than it should. Operators can then analyse it to understand why, and send out a field crew to inspect or fix the infrastructure, if necessary. Water distribution networks, in all their large and complex pipe and sewer systems, buried underground, can be difficult to manage and maintain. Internet of Things (IoT) sensors that gather geographic information system (GIS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) data have been helpful in detecting problems and making better infrastructural decisions. What if there is a software that can pull all these data together to generate more immediate, and more complete insights into the infrastructure? OpenFlows technology by Bentley Systems aims to do that. In essence, OpenFlows simulates and models water networks. As utilities have increasingly been installed with sensor technology in recent years, acquiring better GIS and SCADA data, OpenFlows brings all the data together and provides users more connected insights into what is happening in the system at that moment. Any type of water distribution network, wastewater collection network, stormwater collections and management, from the size of a small site up to an entire city, can be managed by OpenFlows. This technology has been also used for designing and managing water treatment plants as well, such as the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (TWRP) project in Singapore. Furthermore, it can cover the entire lifecycle of an asset, predicting where likely problems might appear, allowing operators to react before these problems occur. “You have to be able to understand the networks through simulation tools, Herrin emphasised that the OpenFlows technology is able to bridge other Bentley and non-Bentley technologies together, enabling the whole infrastructure network to work better digitally. He elaborated: “We want our software to become more flexible, more open, and connect more broadly into the lifecycle phases [of a water infrastructure]. We have a history of being the first software provider that can do this type of water modelling. This is different from other vendors where they take what they want and try to control your data and environment, so that you only use their tools. But the infrastructure itself will be here for 100 years.” He added: “The other thing that we focus on is trying to make sure that everything we do is usable. Part of that is the user interface, making sure that engineers can interact with these tools well. We are expanding that to make it friendlier for operators and non-engineers to use. The easier it is to use the software, the more options you can evaluate, the better decision you can make about what choice you are going to use.” PREDICTING UNPREDICTABILITY Water crises caused by climate change, including but limited to issues like water WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 19
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