Background
An improved discipline is needed concerning lifecycle cost approaches to infrastructure design. All our industrial infrastructures are ageing. However, some reach their theoretical end of life without showing signs of weakness as such. Considering lifecycle cost approaches the costs of upgrading and replacement can be reduced considerably.
From a regulatory point of view, requirements within Europe for condition determination and lifetime assessment of existing industrial installations are still administered at the level of the individual member states of the European Union. It follows that these requirements may be very different from one country to the other, even for very similar installations. Furthermore the philosophy of regulation in different countries is quite different.
Form an industrial point of view, practices differ from one industry to another, both for specific reasons and because there is little contact between different industries for reasons of competition. This has led to a very individual level of expertise at individual plants, and also major differences between industrial sectors.
Existing, nationally fragmented, regulations which do not cover the current demand threaten the competitiveness of European industry. Furthermore it would be desirable to ensure an equal level of safety in the entire European Union, and ultimately possibly one global level. This generates the following motivation for the creation of this CEN Workshop:
- Existing regulations were elaborated when plants were young, and end of life was not an issue;
- Fragmented regulations all over Europe have led to disadvantages in competition based on overhead costs imposed;
- New knowledge generated by the scientific community has not so far been taken up, given that regulatory processes are slow;
- The lack of standards does not allow to apply the new methodologies systematically in the European industry for reliability reasons;
- A voluntary standardization approach, using in the first instance the informal consensus process of a CEN Workshop, will help to improve the understanding of these issues Europe-wide and begin to bridge the gap.
It is recognised that there cannot be one concept fit for all. Therefore the concept of this CEN Workshop is based on a horizontal specification of the methodology with subsequent parts representing the specific industries with their specific demands.
The original proposers of this CEN Workshop are the members of the IRIS Project (Integrated European Industrial Risk Reduction System Project).
CEN Workshop Agreement
The CEN Workshop Agreement produced will:
- elaborate a standard framework for the results of the IRIS Project. Results will become directly available for relevant industries to apply;
- using this framework, document specific requirements for individual sector-related applications.
CEN Workshop Status
The kick-off meeting of this took place in Brussels on 10 December 2010 and the CEN Workshop was created.
Contact Points
CEN Workshop Chairman
Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Helmut Wenzel
VCE Holding GmbH
Hadikgasse 60
AT-1140 Wien
Tel: + 43 1 897 53 39
E-mail
CEN Workshop Secretariat
Austrian Standards Institute
Dipl.-Ing. Roman Schremser
Heinestraße 38
AT-1020 Wien
Tel: + 43 1 213 00 510
E-mail
CEN-CENELEC Management Centre
Mr Gonçalo Ascensão
Avenue Marnix 17
B-1000 Brussels
Tel: + 32 2 550 08 45
E-mail