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Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) is a process used to determine activities to be taken to ensure an asset continues to perform asset's function in asset's present operating context by identifying asset's function, failure modes that could preclude performing asset's intended function, prioritizing failure modes and determining effective preventative maintenance tasks that can be cost effectively and efficiently implemented to reduce the likelihood of a failure.

A comprehensive survey of literature was undertaken to examine the current industry state of practice. Various industries were examined to better understand applications of RCM within the various industry sectors and determine those industries that RCM has not historically been readily adopted. A case study example of RCM applied to radial gates for water control in open channel canals for water conveyance is presented to demonstrate a civil infrastructure application.

The results found that RCM has been used since RCM's inception in the airline industry during the 1960s to reduce the cost of maintaining aircrafts. Over the past 40 years, an assortment of industries has begun implementing cost effective preventative maintenance tasks identified during RCM analysis. However, there is a noticeable lack of civil assets being analyzed by RCM, such as water conveyance systems and other civil infrastructure systems vital to the health and well-being of today's societies.

The comprehensive literature review of the current state of practice will provide a better understanding of the various applications of RCM to facilitate RCM's application to other industries, thereby reducing failure due to early identification of maintenance tasks. An example RCM demonstrates the application to a radial gate, used in water conveyance for the drinking water and irrigation sectors, which have not historically used RCM for developing maintenance strategies.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between environmental factors and building energy consumption of three Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings at the Arizona State University, by establishing the relationships of the outside atmospheric temperature and the energy consumed in the building using real-time data generated from different sources.

K-means clustering analysis is used to calibrate and eliminate unwanted influences or factors from a set of building consumption real-time data. For further statistical analysis, the chi-square is used to verify if the results are ample to prove the findings.

Few studies have addressed building energy consumption real-time data versus LEED Energy and Atmosphere (EA) credits with the data mining technique (k-means clustering) on most of building performance analyses. This study highlighted that the calibrating energy data are a better approach to analyze energy use in buildings and that there is a relationship between LEED credits’ (EA) Optimize Energy Performance scores and building energy efficiency. However, the energy consumption data alone do not yield useful results to establish the cause and effect relationships.

Although there are several previous research studies regarding LEED building energy performance, this research study focused on the LEED building energy performance versus LEED EA credits versus environmental factors using real-time building energy data and various statistical methods (e.g. K-means clustering and chi-square). The findings provide researchers, engineers and architects with valuable references for building energy analysis methods and supplements in LEED standards.

The purpose of this paper is to identify key project delivery method selection factors to assist water industry decision-makers in selecting the most appropriate delivery method for their water treatment plant projects.

The selection factors were identified by compiling and validating key project delivery selection factors across various industries through an extensive literature review and two industry expert workshops. This resulted in the development of a web-based decision-support tool to facilitate project delivery method selection within the water industry.

The research effort led to the identification of 13 key project delivery method selection factors (seven primary factors and six secondary factors) for water treatment plant projects. These factors were utilized to develop EXPRSS-TP, a pioneering web-based project delivery method decision-support tool for the water industry.

A project delivery method selection process is typically an informal process that may range from days to weeks at a time. Based on this work, the assessment can now be completed in about one hour and provides decision-makers with the most favorable delivery method for their project. And with the new tool that encompasses the new knowledge, not only is the decision reached at an accelerated pace, EXPRSS-TP also documents the entire selection process, allowing for a written and retained record of this key decision and its procedure.

This paper contributes to the exisiting body of knowledge by identifying key project delivery selection factors across numerous industries, assessing and combining them, and finally incorporating them into one comprehensive process. EXPRSS-TP improves the traditional project delivery method selection process and provides evidence-based project delivery method selection recommendations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate design alternatives for pump‐included water distribution networks considering sustainability and reliability aspects. The aim is to demonstrate that CO₂ emissions could be reduced at a reasonable cost. The paper also investigates the trade‐offs between cost and reliability of water distribution networks.

An existing genetic algorithm optimization tool is customized in this research to perform multi‐objective optimization with various objectives and constraints. The developed model is demonstrated using a benchmark water distribution network.

The results from this research suggest that CO₂ emissions from water distribution networks could be reduced at a reasonable cost by choosing better objectives during the design stage. High system reliability could also be ensured for the lifetime by paying reasonable additional cost. This research presents various design alternatives for an engineer to choose from.

The design of water distribution networks is a computationally complex process and often requires significant CPU time to arrive at an optimal solution. This problem is significant in the case of larger networks, especially when all the failed states need to be simulated. Simpler measures of reliability could be adopted in the future.

Although a significant amount of research had been undertaken in the area of optimal water distribution network design, only limited research includes environmental impacts as a design objective. This paper not only includes environmental aspects but also considers reliability. The model proposed in this research is a useful tool for engineers for considering various alternatives before choosing the best design.

The consideration of all aspects of the systems that support a community is necessary to accomplish adequate long range asset planning and protection. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the addition of a subterranean infrastructure reconnaissance emphasis to an existing series of vulnerability assessment tools used by the State of Arizona, and investigate economic impact (disaster recovery) estimation methods for potential incorporation. The intent is to provide a framework for model development and suggest data to be collected.

Through modifications of existing system components, a subterranean infrastructure reconnaissance emphasis is proposed for the State of Arizona's current vulnerability assessment tools. Although they can be adjusted as needed, the modifications presented herein include 11 subterranean assets and ten threats to subterranean assets. Furthermore, existing methods for estimating the economic impact of disasters are investigated via literature reviews, e‐mails, and telephone correspondence.

Regarding the subterranean infrastructure reconnaissance component, a number of emerging technologies are currently available to monitor the various infrastructure elements from the identified potential threats. The process of linking the various data collection elements into a comprehensive surveillance system is currently underway in Arizona. Interim reconnaissance techniques using local statistic models will be applied incrementally while the data integration process is underway. With respect to the economic impact estimation module, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's HAZUS‐MH loss estimation model was identified as a top prospect for testing.

The research focuses on examining the interdependencies and vulnerabilities of critical subterranean infrastructure. Therefore, critical surface or above ground infrastructure components are not primarily discussed. Additionally, this paper presents only a plan; there are no empirical results to date.

The methodology discussed may be utilized to support the decision‐making process for managing resources used to sustain subterranean infrastructure operations, with the goal of providing resiliency to community support mechanisms.

The specific focus on developing a subterranean infrastructure reconnaissance emphasis in a State's disaster management program is a novel tool for Arizona. The value is to enhance preparation, response, resilience, and recovery from hazards and disasters affecting the State's critical subterranean infrastructure. It is theorized that value will further be generated in a resulting subterranean infrastructure reconnaissance template, which can be adopted by other emergency and disaster management organizations.

Today, engineers are faced with engaging the construction option that not only provides the best cost advantage, but also considers environmental sensitivities to create the most sustainable solution. The purpose of this paper is to identify a methodology to determine the pollutant emissions from utility construction methods.

A survey of the literature was conducted to determine the need and developments in the area of emissions from construction industry. With the use of approved methodologies, an application program that is simple and user friendly was designed to estimate emissions from utility construction projects.

The results of the research shows that the emissions can be calculated from standard equations using details available at any project site. With minimum effort, construction industry personnel can use available historical project data to determine and quantify emissions from their construction activities.

The research examines the major air pollutants from equipment/trucks burning diesel fuel. The impact of existing climatic conditions, weather and maintenance of machineries is not considered in the emission calculations.

Estimation of emissions during the design phase of a project will help regulators and decision makers choose a construction methodology that not only incorporates time, cost, and social benefits, but also environmental benefits.

Utilization of the tool created by this research should make contractors conscious towards the impact of their activities on their environment by showing them a methodology for estimating such emissions. The research shows the path to promulgate their methodologies in a world that is going “Green”.