Assessing the Technical Specifications of Predictive Maintenance: A Case Study of Centrifugal Compressor

• Main Authors: Helge Nordal, Idriss El-Thalji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-02-01
• Series: Applied Sciences
• Subjects: predictive maintenance; effectiveness assessment; industry 4.0; oil and gas; centrifugal compressor; technical safety
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/4/1527

Dependability analyses in the design phase are common in IEC 60300 standards to assess the reliability, risk, maintainability, and maintenance supportability of specific physical assets. Reliability and risk assessment uses well-known methods such as failure modes, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA), fault tree analysis (FTA), and event tree analysis (ETA)to identify critical components and failure modes based on failure rate, severity, and detectability. Monitoring technology has evolved over time, and a new method of failure mode and symptom analysis (FMSA) was introduced in ISO 13379-1 to identify the critical symptoms and descriptors of failure mechanisms. FMSA is used to estimate monitoring priority, and this helps to determine the critical monitoring specifications. However, FMSA cannot determine the effectiveness of technical specifications that are essential for predictive maintenance, such as detection techniques (capability and coverage), diagnosis (fault type, location, and severity), or prognosis (precision and predictive horizon). The paper proposes a novel predictive maintenance (PdM) assessment matrix to overcome these problems, which is tested using a case study of a centrifugal compressor and validated using empirical data provided by the case study company. The paper also demonstrates the possible enhancements introduced by Industry 4.0 technologies.