The Aquaspira SmartSense pipe is the first, large-scale water transport/drainage system to incorporate embedded condition sensing technologies in a bespoke, configurable form with Digital Twin capability. The composite steel reinforced SmartSense pipe utilises recycled HDPE and steel materials in its construction and is designed for use with as-dug backfill materials.
Funded by a £260,000 Innovate UK Sustainable Innovation Award in 2021, SmartSense is the latest research innovation from an on-going partnership between Aquaspira Limited and the University of Birmingham. With the aim of developing the next generation of drainage systems capable of autonomous asset/pipeline monitoring, SmartSense’s technical novelty lies in the user-configurable embedded sensing capability where different sensing technologies can be integrated into current pipeline products at the manufacturing stage. These can include the latest in fibre-optic strain and temperature, soil moisture & compaction, linear strain & displacement, vibration and water flow/depth/temperature. Sensing configurations can be designed, verified and tested at the pre-manufacture stage using SmartSense’s unique Digital Twin co-product that utilises sophisticated, high-accuracy Finite Element (FE) models of the whole pipeline system (i.e., the pipe, sensors, backfill materials and pipeline installation setting) to create a digital replicant of the proposed pipeline installation.
SmartSense represents the next-generation of pipeline technology with significant carbon reduction (towards net zero for 2050) and the necessary level of monitoring/sensing capability for infrastructure owners to autonomously monitor the condition of their assets. The Digital Twin co-product provides the data-based requirements needed for compatibility with future maintenance and performance monitoring systems (i.e., paving the way for virtual and augmented reality applications) and accurate BIM-compatible data for construction sustainability and life cycle assessments. SmartSense is notable in the sector as it is the only pipeline system aligning with the Digital Built Britain programme of the 2017 BEIS Industrial Strategy where new infrastructure construction products are expected to have fully BIM-compatible components incorporated into their design phase.
