Port accessPredictive Intelligent system to optimize BREAKwater maintenance – PI-BREAK –
The PI-BREAK (Predictive Intelligent system to optimize BREAKwater maintenance) project is part of the call for R+D+I Projects in Strategic Lines, in public-private collaboration of the state programme to address challenges facing society, within the framework of the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2017-2020. The project is funded by the European Union through the NextGenerationEU call for proposals.
The project is led by the Laboratorio de Ingeniería Marítima (LIM) / Maritime Engineering Laboratory, a research centre linked to the Barcelona School of Civil Engineering (part of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, UPC), with the University of Cantabria (IHCantabria), the Port Authority of Bilbao and AZTI as project partners. EPhysLab of the University of Vigo and the State Ports Authority are also involved as collaborators, with a view to incorporating the results of the project into the Spanish port system.
PI-BREAK addresses the development of predictive maintenance applicable to breakwaters and other coastal structures, with special attention to their ultimate and serviceability limit states (resistant and functional design). Drawing on artificial intelligence, PI-BREAK will combine data and results obtained from multiple sources on different climate scenarios, linking short- to long-term scales (i.e. from storm events to climate change projections), together with a catalogue of sequenced maintenance interventions to develop adaptive solutions (adaptation through maintenance) for critical infrastructures such as breakwaters. Thus, the project aims to combine the results of numerical simulations, field measurements and experimental data, in both 2D and 3D and taking into account both short and long term scenarios, in order to develop a list of conservation and maintenance actions, together with their respective costs and approaches to investment, to develop adaptation protocols that will enable the sustainability of port and coastal structures, identifying their points of no return. This is an aspect considered of considerable importance by the Port Authority of Bilbao to ensure optimum efficiency in the conservation and maintenance of port infrastructure.
PI-BREAK will focus on the Punta Lucero breakwater in the Port of Bilbao. The selected breakwater is an essential service as it provides shelter for socio-economic activities and protects the Petronor fuel pipeline, a main conduit for this refinery and a critical infrastructure for Spain. Predictive maintenance will reduce risks in operational and survival conditions, contributing to the reduction of the final risk of infrastructures, to the efficiency of port operation, to the reduction of accumulated costs and the environmental footprint and to the well-being of the coastal populations that depend on port systems.
