The Belcam Project: a summary of three years of research in service life prediction and information technology
Vanier, D. J., Kyle, B. R., Kosovac, B., Froese, T. M. and Lounis, Z.
2001 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, IT in Construction in Africa, 30 May - 1 June, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Vanier, D. J., Kyle, B. R., Kosovac, B., Froese, T. M. and Lounis, Z., (2001), "The Belcam Project: a summary of three years of research in service life prediction and information technology", INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, IT in Construction in Africa, 30 May - 1 June, Mpumalanga, South Africa.
Abstract:
The original objectives of the Building Envelope Life Cycle Asset Management Project (BELCAM) were to develop techniques to predict the remaining service life of building envelope components and to develop procedures to maximize the effect of maintenance management. Six enabling technologies were identified as critical to the tasks: maintenance management, service life prediction, life cycle economics, risk analysis and information technologies. Roofing systems were chosen as the domain for the "proof of concept" of the techniques and procedures. Information technology was to be used extensively in the course of the project. During the three year term of the project, data were collected on over 2800 roof sections from a wide range of systems and climatic regions across Canada. Data in this paper are presented based on the variations in the age, type, geographic location and condition of the roofing sections. Markov modelling was used to analyse the change in conditions of representative samples; deterioration curves were calculated to predict the change in condition, and remaining service life of specific components of the roofing system could be estimated from these data. The first original objective was accomplished. The project developed techniques to estimate the live cycle costs of maintenance management and to calculate the risk of envelope failure.Multi-objective optimization was used to prioritize planned maintenance, based on maximizing condition, while minimizing risk of failure and cost of repairs; thereby attaining the second original object of the project. A two-dimensional, graphical prototype, developed as a the result of this research, is described in the paper. Although an original goal of the project was to utilize information technology to a heavy degree in data collection, analysis and display, unfortunately slow developments in the field of standards for product models (i.e. STEP and IAI) prevented the creation of robust, user-friendly models for data storage and retrieval. However, the project identified the need for continued research in that arena. The project will continue for an additional two years in collaboration with a number of Canadian universities, additional roofing system data will also be collected.
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