FUTURE DIGITAL TWIN
The value of avoiding uncertainty in the ground Oil and gas Technology talks to Tom Willoughby, Strategic Sales and Marketing Manager (UK), Fugro about how its GRMF can help clients meet the current demand for energy and infrastructure projects.
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hen developing new assets or infrastructure, early and thorough preparation is vital to avoid delays and increased costs. The key to effective preparation is to properly deal with uncertainty in the ground, to avoid unwanted outcomes. Fugro’s Geo-Risk Management Framework (GRMF) provides a starting point to tackle this all-critical factor. What are the current market challenges for ground engineering? With drivers such as energy security and net zero targets, clients are keen to push forward as quickly as possible with infrastructure delivery, in an innovative way. Construction is facing shortages of labour and equipment, with on-going global supply issues due to post-Covid recovery, the war
in Ukraine, and the on-going impacts of Brexit. We need to identify project critical success factors and deliver on these in a way that challenges norms but delivers the confidence required. The challenge for the geotechnical sector is how can we carry out the subsurface investigations vital to these major projects with the required quality and in the right timeframe, while bridging the gap in equipment and technically skilled people? Recognising our extensive global network and comprehensive inhouse capabilities, Fugro is also tackling today’s challenges of programme delivery through our GRMF. One area of the framework reduces time pressures on project schedules by using ground characterisation data from
non-intrusive geophysical techniques as part of a screening solution. Followed by an optimised convention investigation, the resulting integrated site characterisation can lead to less time, less cost, a smaller carbon footprint and reduced exposure to operational risks for field staff.
Why is it important to engage early on the site investigation? As experts in subsurface risk, we need to sit down at project concept to understand the client’s engineering business objectives (end games) and devise a time/quality/ cost equation to quantify subsurface risk and move the project forward. The major burden of ground risk is at the beginning where it impacts design, so it is imperative to fully understand and quantify it in a site-specific sense. In the absence of sufficient, robust, qualifying ground data, you could end up over-engineering or under-engineering an asset, and both could cost you more money. Our early phase Geo-data will help inform and evidence competent, costeffective designs.
Explain the importance of nonintrusive techniques to the site investigation In characterising a development site, especially large and complex megaprojects such as nuclear, wind farms, hydro schemes or strategic transport infrastructure, a screening solution, using for example geophysical screening, allows you to understand where your potential ground problems lie before committing to the labour-intensive work
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