News from the South African water sector

Abstract

E ngineers and designers of bulk water pipelines now have a tool available to them to determine the most economical solution for the complete design life of their system. The software, named AQUA Hydraulic Utilities, is described in a new report available from the Water Research Commission, entitled Lifecycle Costing Analyses for Pipeline Design and Supporting Software. The report, authored by Prof Fanie van Vuuren and Marco van Dijk, both from the University of Pretoria’s Department of Civil and Biosystems, is a guide to lifecycle costing analysis, limited to the design/analyses of bulk pipelines. The guide introduces different lifecycle cost elements to the design engineer, and indicates how these cost elements will affect the final decision. It also explains the functionality of the AQUA Hydraulic Utilities program. The program requires the user to enter the demands, design life, pipeline profile, pipeline characteristics, laying details, rates and costs of the proposed pipeline.

Authors

Categories