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SKA South Africa Designs for Reliability on Global Mega-Science Initiative Bentley AssetWise Optimizes

SKA South Africa Designs for Reliability on Global Mega-Science Initiative Bentley AssetWise Optimizes
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SKA South Africa Designs for Reliability on Global Mega-Science Initiative Bentley AssetWise Optimizes - 1

CASE STUDY Project Summary Organization SKA South Africa Location Carnarvon, South Africa Project Objectives: • Design and construct a world-class radio telescope within budget and on an aggressive timeline. • Implement a disciplined configuration and change management process to optimize performance and reliability of MeerKAT. • Facilitate accurate information mobility and collaboration among a multi-discipline global team. Products used AssetWise Fast Facts • This ZAR 2 billion telescope consists of 64 unshaped offset Gregorian dishes, each with a projected dish diameter of 13.5 meters. • AssetWise allowed SKA South Africa to hand over a complete as-built configuration to operations and maintenance while still enabling project management to maintain control over asset infrastructure. ROI • Using AssetWise ensured complete and accurate data was available at all times to the widely dispersed project team, minimizing rework and reducing costs. SKA South Africa Designs for Reliability on Global Mega-Science Initiative Bentley AssetWise Optimizes Data Management and Information Mobility for World’s Largest and Most Sensitive Radio Telescope A World-class Telescope The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project is a global effort comprising organizations from 10 member countries, including South Africa and Australia, that aims to answer fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of the universe. A mega-science initiative that will push the limits of engineering and scientific endeavors over the coming decades, the SKA project required the development of cutting-edge technology and innovation, including the design of the world’s fastest supercomputers, to process data at rates greater than the current Internet traffic. It will use thousands of dishes and up to 1 million antennas, and will incorporate a collection of telescopes spanning the globe that will enable astronomers to probe the universe in unprecedented detail, and survey the entire sky much faster than any radio astronomy facility currently in existence. The SKA will be built in two phases, SKA1 in South Africa and Australia, and SKA2, which will expand the science infrastructure into other African countries and throughout Australia. As part of the SKA1 phase, SKA South Africa is designing and constructing the ZAR 2 billion MeerKAT radio telescope in the remote, arid region of Karoo, 90 kilometers outside the small town of Carnarvon, South Africa. MeerKAT is a precursor to the SKA telescope and will be integrated into the • AssetWise delivered a disciplined engineering management and configuration system that improved performance of MeerKAT that, according to the baseline specification, could be valued at close to ZAR 1 billion. • MeerKAT and the SKA will provide significant and sustainable economic benefit to South Africa with imaging capabilities that will transform astronomy and science around the globe. AssetWise delivers reliability at every stage of the asset, ensuring affordable maintenance of the final asset over its 30-50-year life span with maximized uptime. mid-frequency component of SKA1. It is the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere until it is surpassed by the SKA, and includes civil infrastructure (including 160 kilometers of buried cables), structural design for the massive dishes, purpose-built housing for all the electronic equipment, software development, and networks and communications. To optimize MeerKAT’s performance, ensure accurate information mobility, and enhance collaboration among the project team, SKA South Africa needed to implement asset and information management processes throughout design, construction, maintenance, and operations of this world-class telescope. Working in a Connected Data Environment The MeerKAT telescope is an array of 64 interlinked receptors, each consisting of an antenna positioner with a projected dish diameter of 13.5 meters, a set of radio receivers, and a set of associated digitizers. Referred to as an offset Gregorian optical layout, this design ensures excellent optical performance, sensitivity, and imaging quality, while rejecting unwanted radio frequency interference. It enables installation of multiple receiver systems and provides numerous operational advantages. SKA South Africa provided project management and system engineering services for MeerKAT. Given the complexity of the structure, SKA South Africa contracted with organizations and academic institutions around the globe to design and manufacture the antennas, receivers, optical fiber network, digitizers, and correlator. With multiple contractors geographically dispersed, it was crucial for optimal management of the project to have a tight grip on the design and asset information, with accessibility of accurate information being a top priority for the entire project team. “It’s about the asset information and documentation management system; and it’s one of those things that seems easy, but it never is,” commented Willem Esterhuyse, MeerKAT project manager, SKA South Africa. SKA South Africa deployed AssetWise to implement its asset and information management system, giving all sites within the organization access via a p

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SKA South Africa Designs for Reliability on Global Mega-Science Initiative Bentley AssetWise Optimizes - 2

"By ensuring that complete and accurate data was available at all times, and that engineering change procedures were completed efficiently and in a timely manner, we were able to reduce rework to a minimum, achieve our aggressive timescales, and exceed the user requirement." - Willem Esterhuyse, MeerKATproject manager, SKA South Africa Find out about Bentley at: www.bentley.com Contact Bentley 1-800-BENTLEY (1-800-236-8539) Outside the US +1 610-458-5000 Global Office Listings www.bentley.com/contact and providing external project team participants access to the system via a web interface....

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