Bentley Case Studies La Société Wallonne des Eaux's Digital Transformation: Automating Crack Detection for Efficient Asset Management

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	La Société Wallonne des Eaux's Digital Transformation: Automating Crack Detection for Efficient Asset Management Bentley

La Société Wallonne des Eaux's Digital Transformation: Automating Crack Detection for Efficient Asset Management

Bentley

Technology Category	Cybersecurity & Privacy - Intrusion Detection Sensors - Utility Meters
Applicable Industries	Cement Construction & Infrastructure
Applicable Functions	Maintenance Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Intelligent Urban Water Supply Management Water Utility Management
Services	Drone Operation Services Testing & Certification
Challenge	La Société Wallonne des Eaux (SWDE), a regional water corporation in Belgium, faced a significant challenge in maintaining its aging water towers. Some of the structures were very old, and the data on them was either inaccurate or unavailable. The SWDE tower in Juprelle, built in 1981, was deteriorating and in need of repair. The tower's concrete structure caused condensation on the interior walls, leading to significant degradation over time, including burst joints, cracks, and the separation of edifice bricks. Traditional manual surveying methods, such as ground-level photography or using elevators to lift workers onto the tank, were inefficient and incomplete. SWDE attempted to use drones to survey the damage, but the drone footage still required human interpretation, which came with a significant risk of error. Small cracks could easily be overlooked, which could lead to long-term deterioration and compromise the reliability and safety of the water network. Read More
About Customer	La Société Wallonne des Eaux (SWDE) is a regional water corporation that owns and maintains a series of water towers throughout Belgium. The organization is the dominant producer of drinking water in the Wallonne region, supplying almost 2.5 million people with 1,317 water tanks and towers. The overall goal of SWDE is to provide reliable access to water for individuals and businesses as the population and economy of the region grow. Some of the structures that SWDE utilizes are very old, so the data on those structures was no longer accurate or, in some cases, available at all. To improve and streamline the management of all SWDE infrastructure, SWDE needed a database to increase the accessibility and accuracy of information about the company’s assets. Read More
Solution	To address these challenges, SWDE collaborated with Bentley Systems to develop an automated crack detection technology. They created a 3D plan for the water tower structure in MicroStation, and then used Pointools to clean up and export the plan as a model in ContextCapture. Bentley developers worked with SWDE to refine an artificial intelligence (AI) capability for automated crack detection. The 3D visualization allowed them to see all angles clearly and analyze cracks precisely in real time. The software could automatically identify cracks as small as 0.1 millimeters and predict their further development. An algorithm quantified the length, width, and depth of each crack and categorized them by their size and trace patterns. The statistics contributed to an analysis of the overall condition of the water tower. SWDE tested the module on the damaged water tower, capturing 3,000 images with drone surveys and using ContextCapture to create a reality mesh of the tower. The AI capability was then used to scan the reality mesh and detect cracks. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Intrusion Detection

Sensors - Utility Meters

Applicable Industries

Cement

Construction & Infrastructure

Applicable Functions

Maintenance

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Intelligent Urban Water Supply Management

Water Utility Management

Services

Drone Operation Services

Testing & Certification

Challenge

La Société Wallonne des Eaux (SWDE), a regional water corporation in Belgium, faced a significant challenge in maintaining its aging water towers. Some of the structures were very old, and the data on them was either inaccurate or unavailable. The SWDE tower in Juprelle, built in 1981, was deteriorating and in need of repair. The tower's concrete structure caused condensation on the interior walls, leading to significant degradation over time, including burst joints, cracks, and the separation of edifice bricks. Traditional manual surveying methods, such as ground-level photography or using elevators to lift workers onto the tank, were inefficient and incomplete. SWDE attempted to use drones to survey the damage, but the drone footage still required human interpretation, which came with a significant risk of error. Small cracks could easily be overlooked, which could lead to long-term deterioration and compromise the reliability and safety of the water network.

About Customer

La Société Wallonne des Eaux (SWDE) is a regional water corporation that owns and maintains a series of water towers throughout Belgium. The organization is the dominant producer of drinking water in the Wallonne region, supplying almost 2.5 million people with 1,317 water tanks and towers. The overall goal of SWDE is to provide reliable access to water for individuals and businesses as the population and economy of the region grow. Some of the structures that SWDE utilizes are very old, so the data on those structures was no longer accurate or, in some cases, available at all. To improve and streamline the management of all SWDE infrastructure, SWDE needed a database to increase the accessibility and accuracy of information about the company’s assets.

Solution

To address these challenges, SWDE collaborated with Bentley Systems to develop an automated crack detection technology. They created a 3D plan for the water tower structure in MicroStation, and then used Pointools to clean up and export the plan as a model in ContextCapture. Bentley developers worked with SWDE to refine an artificial intelligence (AI) capability for automated crack detection. The 3D visualization allowed them to see all angles clearly and analyze cracks precisely in real time. The software could automatically identify cracks as small as 0.1 millimeters and predict their further development. An algorithm quantified the length, width, and depth of each crack and categorized them by their size and trace patterns. The statistics contributed to an analysis of the overall condition of the water tower. SWDE tested the module on the damaged water tower, capturing 3,000 images with drone surveys and using ContextCapture to create a reality mesh of the tower. The AI capability was then used to scan the reality mesh and detect cracks.

Impact #1	The implementation of the automated crack detection technology has revolutionized SWDE's approach to infrastructure maintenance. The technology allows for faster and better-informed decision-making on renovation plans and techniques, ultimately saving costs. The accurate digital renderings have also established a baseline that SWDE can compare to future surveys to identify any degradation, helping them be proactive about preventing any risks of interruption to the water supply. The solution contributes greatly to SWDE’s broader goal of secure, efficient, and reliable management and provision of water resources. By saving time and costs, the automatic crack detection software helps SWDE sustainably maintain millions of households’ access to clean drinking water.

Impact #1

The implementation of the automated crack detection technology has revolutionized SWDE's approach to infrastructure maintenance. The technology allows for faster and better-informed decision-making on renovation plans and techniques, ultimately saving costs. The accurate digital renderings have also established a baseline that SWDE can compare to future surveys to identify any degradation, helping them be proactive about preventing any risks of interruption to the water supply. The solution contributes greatly to SWDE’s broader goal of secure, efficient, and reliable management and provision of water resources. By saving time and costs, the automatic crack detection software helps SWDE sustainably maintain millions of households’ access to clean drinking water.

Benefit #1	The automated crack detection technology resulted in a 600% faster process of crack detection and analysis.
Benefit #2	SWDE’s solution was twice as reliable as manual surveying methods.
Benefit #3	Using Bentley’s software, SWDE saved more than EUR 2 million on this complex project.

Benefit #1

The automated crack detection technology resulted in a 600% faster process of crack detection and analysis.

Benefit #2

SWDE’s solution was twice as reliable as manual surveying methods.

Benefit #3

Using Bentley’s software, SWDE saved more than EUR 2 million on this complex project.

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Overview

La Société Wallonne des Eaux's Digital Transformation: Automating Crack Detection for Efficient Asset Management

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit