Guidelines for Condition Based Maintenance

T. Tinga (NLDA) D. Soute (Wrtsil) H. Roeterink (Gasunie)

version 2.0 23 February 2010

This report presents the results of a collaborative research project executed within the World Class Maintenance Consortium. The contents have been reviewed by: P. Casteleijn L. Pijpker H. T. Lijzenga Stork Asset Management Solutions Stork Asset Management Solutions Koninklijke Marine

Contents
List of abbreviations and definitions ...............................................................................................................4 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................5 2 Maintenance concepts............................................................................................................................6 3 Criteria for applicability of CBM..............................................................................................................8 3.1 General requirements .......................................................................................................................8 4 Proven CBM systems.............................................................................................................................10 4.1 Vibration monitoring.......................................................................................................................10 4.2 Condition monitoring of bearings ...................................................................................................10 4.3 Monitoring of hydraulic and lubrication systems ...........................................................................10 4.4 Condition monitoring based on process data .................................................................................10 5 Reliability and Maintenance Engineering tools.....................................................................................12 5.1 Maintenance strategy selection......................................................................................................12 5.1.1 Failure mode, effect and criticality analysis (FMECA)............................................................13 5.1.2 Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) ................................................................................13 5.1.3 Risk Based Inspections (RBI) ..................................................................................................13 5.1.4 Maintenance interval determination ....................................................................................13 5.2 Maintenance program execution....................................................................................................14 5.3 Evaluation and prognostics .............................................................................................................14 5.3.1 Updating (fixed) intervals ......................................................................................................14 5.3.2 Prognostics ............................................................................................................................15 5.4 Optimization....................................................................................................................................15 5.4.1 Example: quantifying the (financial) benefit of CBM.............................................................16 5.5 Software packages ..........................................................................................................................17 5.5.1 Benchmark.............................................................................................................................18 5.5.2 Maintenance modelling and optimization.............................................................................18 5.6 Sensors ............................................................................................................................................18 5.7 Future developments ......................................................................................................................19 6 Guidelines for Condition Based Maintenance ......................................................................................20 7 Case studies ..........................................................................................................................................22 7.1 Description of the Gasunie pilot .....................................................................................................22 7.1.1 Gasunie selection process .....................................................................................................22 7.1.2 SRCM study of the compressor installation...........................................................................23 7.2 Description of the Wrtsil pilot .....................................................................................................24 7.2.1 Motivation to apply condition based maintenance...............................................................24 7.2.2 CMS development using FMECA and RAMS ..........................................................................25 7.2.3 CMS development using RCM ...............................................................................................30 7.2.4 Condition Based Maintenance...............................................................................................31 8 Validation of the guidelines ..................................................................................................................34 8.1 Validation of the Wrtsil pilot .......................................................................................................34 8.1.1 Is the asset suitable for CBM ? ..............................................................................................34 8.1.2 Development of the customized system ...............................................................................36 8.1.3 Conclusion Wrtsil pilot.......................................................................................................37 8.2 Validation of the Gasunie pilot........................................................................................................37 8.3 Validation of the guidelines ............................................................................................................37 9 Conclusions ...........................................................................................................................................38 References .....................................................................................................................................................39

List of abbreviations and definitions

Abbreviations CBM Condition Based Maintenance CMS Condition Monitoring System CMMS Computerized Maintenance Management System FMECA Failure Mode, Effect and Criticality Analysis PGB Propeller Gearbox PM Preventive Maintenance RBD Reliability Block Diagram RBI Risk Based Inspection RCM Reliability Centered Maintenance SRCM Streamlined Reliability Centered Maintenance

Definitions Condition Monitoring System (CMS): is a real-time machinery parameter measurement & signal processing system. Condition Based Maintenance (CBM): constitutes a set of maintenance processes and capabilities derived from real-time assessment of the machinery condition obtained from embedded sensors and on-line signal processing. Prognostics: is an automated CBM system, which predicts the remaining machinery service life under defined operational conditions. Offline CMS: CMS, whereby the measurements and data collection are manual performed (not automatically) by an engineer on regularly basis with a hand held measurement device Online CMS: CMS, whereby the measurements and data collection are performed automatically on a continuous basis without human intervention. The systems are connected with a local network. Online with remote access: Thruster and operational parameters can be monitored and analyzed by experts on different locations.

1 Introduction
In the First round of WCMC projects, Wrtsil and Gasunie started the development of a Condition Monitoring System (CMS) for one of their assets to be able to perform Condition Based Maintenance (CBM). These activities have been continued in work package 4 during the second round of WCMC projects. Alongside these practical pilot projects, some effort has been put in the development of a set of general guidelines for the development of a CBM system. During that task, the experience gained by Wrtsil and Gasunie has been combined with the more general knowledge of the other contributing partners (NLDA, Nedtrain and Stork AMS) and several external partners (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, TU Delft, Royal Netherlands Navy). The result of these activities are reported in this document. Chapter 2 provides a short introduction in maintenance concepts. Chapter 3 describes the criteria that should be considered to decide whether a certain asset is suitable for CBM. Both economical and technical issues are treated. In Chapter 4 a number of proven and commercially available condition monitoring systems are described. Chapter 5 provides an overview of the available tools for developing a suitable maintenance strategy and for analyzing reliability, availability and costs. In Chapter 6 the main result of the present project is presented in the form of a decision scheme that assists in deciding whether an asset is suitable for CBM and in developing a CMS. In Chapter 7, the two pilot projects as run by Wrtsil and Gasunie are described and in Chapter 8 the decision scheme is applied to these pilots to assess the followed development process. This also yields a validation of the presented decision scheme. Finally, Chapter 9 provides some concluding remarks.

2 Maintenance concepts
The main goal of performing maintenance is to obtain the optimal availability of a capital asset, which requires balancing the availability of the asset with the costs of maintenance activities and non-productive periods (due to failure or maintenance). Performing too much maintenance results in high costs and frequent non-productive periods, whereas too limited maintenance leads to unexpected failures and reduced availability. There is a wide variety of maintenance concepts that can be applied to maintain an asset. These concepts can be divided into two basic types: corrective maintenance: maintenance activities (repair, replacement) are only performed when failure occurs. In that way, the service life of a part or component is fully utilized. preventive maintenance: aims to prevent failure by performing appropriate maintenance activities. The planning of those activities depends on either calendar time, the usage (or the resulting load) or the condition of the system, where several subtypes of the concept are available. The maintenance activities in the latter preventive concept can be triggered by the following quantities: calendar time or age based: every day, week, month, etc. usage based: triggered by either a usage parameter (operating hours, start / stops, km / miles, etc.) or a load parameter (temperature, strain (magnitude or cycles), time, electric current). condition based: triggered by either a performance parameter (flow (in pumps), delivered power / thrust, speed) or the physical condition (crack length, number of particles in hydraulic oil, delamination in composite materials, vibrations (bearings)). Which maintenance strategy is chosen depends on the criticality of the part and the variability and predictability of the usage: non-critical parts: corrective maintenance is in many cases the optimal strategy, since the full service life is utilized and no expensive inspections or monitoring are required. critical parts: failure must be prevented for safety (e.g. aircraft, nuclear plants) or economical reasons (large plants in process industry), so a preventive maintenance concept is most suitable. constant usage: the usage is fully known and replacement intervals can be determined accurately, e.g. for machines that are operated continuously at constant and well-known power settings. A calendar time based concept is a cost-effective strategy in this case, since no monitoring is required. variable usage: for systems that are operated in a more variable way (e.g. aero-engines, thrusters) the usage must be taken into account when the service intervals are determined. Assuming the usage in the design phase is difficult, and therefore often large safety factors must be applied. However, when the usage or load are monitored, a much more accurate prediction of the service interval can be made. The only remaining uncertainty is the relation between the usage / loads and the failure mechanism. Therefore, the optimal amount of maintenance, which provides the best balance between costs and availability, is ideally obtained with a condition based concept, since it enables the execution of maintenance activities exactly on the right moment. However, not every asset is suitable for a condition based maintenance concept. It must be feasible to assess the condition of the asset and to relate the condition to the required maintenance activities. For many assets that is not possible and a usage or load based approach may then be a better option. To

7 determine whether a certain asset is suitable for a condition based maintenance concept, this document provides a number of guidelines.

3 Criteria for applicability of CBM

To decide whether an asset is suitable for CBM, several aspects have to be checked. This chapter will discuss the criteria that play a role in this process, ultimately resulting in a decision scheme (chapter 6). In the next chapter an overview of available reliability and maintenance engineering tools is provided that can assist in completing the decision scheme. Chapter 4 provides an overview of established CM techniques that already have been applied extensively in practice. 3.1 General requirements In a general case, the following requirements can be identified for the suitability of an asset for condition based maintenance: 1. technical requirements: 1.1. is it possible to identify the quantities that govern the maintenance needs of the asset (i.e. the critical failure mechanism and the associated condition parameter) ? 1.2. can these quantities be measured ? 1.3. can the (values or trends in) measured quantities be used to (timely) predict failures or be translated into maintenance intervals ? The latter question concerns the prognostic part of the CBM methodology, which in most cases is the most difficult aspect. Just waiting until a certain parameter exceeds a critical value means that at that moment short term action is required, which is difficult to plan (e.g. personnel, spare parts) and may have serious consequences for the system availability. This is called the P-F interval, the time between the detection of an expected failure and the actual occurrence of that failure. Only when the P-F interval is sufficiently large, CBM is feasible. 2. economic/ safety requirement: 2.1. does application of CBM yield any financial advantage (lower maintenance costs, higher availability) or does it increase the safety level ? All these questions require a positive answer. If there is no economical or safety advantage, or one of the required quantities cannot be measured, the asset is not suitable for CBM. On the other hand, when all these question can be answered positively, the asset is suitable to be maintained on a condition basis. The next step is then to decide how the CBM system can be realized. That requires detailed answering of the following (technical) questions. 3. realization of the CBM system 3.1. is the condition assessed directly (wear, vibrations) or indirectly (performance) ? 3.2. what is the best method to measure the required quantities ? is a suitable sensor available ? is the location accessible ? is data collection possible (local, remote/on-line) ? what will be the sample frequency (real-time or during regular inspections) ? 3.3. how can the (values or trends in) measured quantities be translated into maintenance intervals (prognostics) ? Questions 3.1 and 3.3 are also addressed by using the typology proposed by researchers at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen [1] which classifies CBM methods according to two criteria: type of data used: process or failure data method for obtaining the expected value or trend: statistical or analytical modelling The statistical modelling in this case refers to statistical and probabilistic methods that use collected historical process or failure data to detect trends or extrapolate into the future in

9 order to predict failures. Analytical models represent the more physical models that relate the (measured) usage to predictions of service life, e.g. based on the failure mechanisms involved. In most cases, the general requirements can only be checked when the more detailed questions have been answered. Moreover, determining whether there will be an economical advantage is in most case quite difficult. Therefore, in chapter 5 an overview of tools will be given that can assist in these analyses. The process described here is based on answering several questions. It results in a detailed analysis of all aspects of a CBM system, which enables a proper judgement of the suitability of a certain asset for CBM and yields useful guidelines for the actual development of the CBM system. In practice, however, companies often dont want to spend the time on a detailed analysis and take quick decisions that are not based on detailed knowledge of the system failure behaviour. This may result in the development of an expensive CBM system, that monitors the wrong quantities and therefore only has a limited value. The guidelines developed in this project may assist in limiting the effort (and costs) of performing a detailed analysis, on which a useful CBM system can be based. In the last decades, a large number of CBM techniques has been developed and applied in practice on a range of different systems. Some of these methods have proven to be effective and to be generally applicable. These methods are in most cases available as commercial services. Therefore, when an asset appears to be suitable for CBM, it may be possible to use a commercially available CM system in stead of developing a new system. In the next chapter an overview is given of proven CBM systems.

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4 Proven CBM systems

This section describes several CBM techniques [2] that have been applied in practice and have proven to be effective. Most of these methods are available as commercial services. For all techniques, the general requirements given in the previous section are checked, by addressing the numbered questions (Q). Note that this overview is far from complete and several other CBM techniques exist. However, some commonly applied methods are discussed here, especially to illustrate how they satisfy the requirements presented in the previous chapter. 4.1 Vibration monitoring Vibration monitoring is nowadays a widely accepted CBM method that can be used to detect wear, failures or malfunctioning of rotating or reciprocating machinery. With regard to the general requirements for CBM systems (section 3.1), this technique is based on the known relation between measured vibrations and the failure mechanisms that are to be detected. Vibration sensors, that measure displacements, velocities or accelerations, monitor the dynamic behaviour of the system (Q1.1, 1.2). The resulting spectra can be used to detect, for example, unbalance, misalignment, bearing wear or gear defects (Q1.3). The possibilities of assessing the condition of the system depend on the complexity of the system, the number of sensors and the availability of information on the machine or system (e.g. stiffness). For rather simple systems like bearings, the method works quite well, as will be discussed next. For more complex systems, analyzing trends in vibration characteristics may indicate a degradation of the system, but quantitative predictions of remaining life may be hard to determine (Q1.3). 4.2 Condition monitoring of bearings Since bearings are rather simple systems and also very widely applied in large numbers, the system knowledge of bearings is well developed. As a consequence, the relation between monitored vibrations and bearing wear or failures are known for the majority of the applied bearings (Q1.3 / 3.3). This means that a CM system can be effectively used to optimize the maintenance tasks on bearings (Q2.1) and a lot of bearing manufacturers can deliver sensors (Q1.2) and analysis software with their products. The software is able to detect the type of degradation and also to predict a value for the remaining life [3]. 4.3 Monitoring of hydraulic and lubrication systems Another well developed condition monitoring technique is the monitoring of hydraulic and lubrication oil. By analysing the oil, both information about the quality of the oil and the condition of the system can be obtained. The quality of the oil is quantified by determination of the viscosity, the total acid / base numbers and the concentration of additives. Further, contamination of the oil may indicate a degradation of the system. The most important contaminations are metal particles, originating from wear and corrosion processes (Q1.3), and water [4]. In most cases, samples must be taken from the oil, which are then analysed in a suitable laboratory. However, recently also oil monitoring sensors (Q1.2) have been developed that may be used to measure the water content in oil or to count the number of particles. 4.4 Condition monitoring based on process data In complex installations it is difficult to monitor directly all relevant failure mechanisms. However, by monitoring the performance of the system, it is in many cases possible to detect

11 incipient failures (Q1.3). This type of CM is applied in e.g. gas turbines, marine refrigeration plants [5], and installations in the process industry. Typically, data from large numbers of sensors measuring quantities like (gas or fluid) pressure , mass flow and temperature at different locations is collected (Q1.2). Suitable data mining techniques are then used to discover trends in the datasets that could be used to predict failures or deterioration of the system (Q1.3 / 2.1). Contrary to the methods discussed before, in this case no direct relation between a physical failure mechanism and the associated condition parameters is available (Q3.1, 3.4).

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5 Reliability and Maintenance Engineering tools

If a new asset is designed, a suitable maintenance strategy must be developed. The execution of this strategy must be started as soon as the asset is in service and the program should be evaluated periodically. Simultaneously, simulations of the maintenance process could assist in optimizing the strategy by comparing different scenarios. This process representing the maintenance strategy life cycle is shown schematically in Figure 5-1. In this chapter the four phases, strategy selection, execution, evaluation and optimization, will be described and the available tools that can assist in these activities will be discussed. Also, as an example of optimization, the application of the tools to quantify the (financial) benefits of CBM for a certain asset is discussed. In industry, the strategy selection is typically performed by a maintenance engineer, while the evaluation and optimization activities are performed by reliability engineers.

Figure 5-1 Schematic representation of the maintenance strategy life cycle. Note that this chapter provides a general description of the maintenance program development, not only focussing on condition based maintenance. The reason is that many asset will appear to be unsuitable for CBM, and the alternative approaches are then available in this section. After the description of the methods, an overview of available software packages that apply these methods is given. Finally, an overview of available sensor types is given. The information provided in this chapter will serve as background knowledge for the decision scheme presented in the next chapter. 5.1 Maintenance strategy selection The first step in developing a maintenance program is the selection of an appropriate maintenance strategy. This implies that a choice has to be made for either corrective or preventive maintenance, as was explained in chapter 2. Further, when a preventive strategy is selected, the trigger for the maintenance activities has to be defined: a fixed time interval (age or calendar time based), a certain amount of operating hours (usage based) or at a certain condition (condition based). This selection process can be supported by tools like FMECA, RCM and RBI, as will be explained below. Moreover, when a preventive strategy with fixed or usage based intervals is selected, the length of the maintenance or inspection intervals has to be determined.

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5.1.1 Failure mode, effect and criticality analysis (FMECA)

A complex system normally contains a large number of components. The maintenance needs are governed by the most critical component(s). Moreover, these critical components may be subject to several different failure mechanisms, whereas only one of these mechanisms is lifelimiting. It is therefore important to determine which component and which failure mechanism are critical for the system under consideration. The Failure Mode, Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) is a tool that supports this task. It assists in performing a structured breakdown of the system, determination of the failure mechanisms and quantification of the associated risks [6]. A lot of commercial software tools are available for FME(C)A analyses (see also 5.5).

5.1.2 Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM)

The Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) concept has it roots in the late 1960s in the aircraft industry, and was proposed in its final form in 1978. Nowadays, the approach is also applied in sectors other than the aerospace industry, like the automotive, energy, naval [6] and manufacturing industries. RCM is a systematic approach for selecting applicable and effective preventive maintenance tasks for each item in a system taking into consideration failure consequences [7]. The previously discussed FMECA is actually an integral part of the RCM approach, assisting in determination of failure modes and their effects. Ultimately, the RCM approach yields a decision scheme that can be used to select the appropriate maintenance task for each individual component in a system. Since the presentation of the original RCM concept, several variants have been developed. The RCM-2 method starts with a criticality analysis of the system and only critical components are considered in the subsequent RCM study. This reduces the effort considerably. A very similar approach is followed in the SRCM method as applied by SKF. A large number of software tools are available to assist in performing an RCM analysis and the method is also integrated in the large reliability analysis packages (see 5.5).

5.1.3 Risk Based Inspections (RBI)

The purpose of the risk based inspection (RBI) methodology is the development of a costeffective maintenance and inspection program. This methodology is typically applied to static equipment. The probability of failure and its consequences (risk) are used to prioritize the inspections of all components in a system. This method is widely applied in the oil and gas industry and mainly focuses on corrosion processes in pipework. Planned inspections are generally performed using non-destructive inspection (NDI) techniques.

5.1.4 Maintenance interval determination

When a predictive strategy is selected, the next issue is the determination of the appropriate maintenance intervals that should be used. As was mentioned in chapter 3, this can be done by applying either statistical methods or by using physical failure models. Statistical methods When maintenance experience on similar systems is available, for example when failure data has been collected, that information can be used to estimate the appropriate maintenance intervals for the new system. If there is no experience on the system level, there may be data available on a component level, since similar components (e.g. bearings, gears) are often used in a range of systems. The statistics of the historical data can then be used to determine the

14 expected mean time between failures (MTBF) and its variation. If no data is available at all, expert knowledge can be used to estimate the MTBF. A best practice estimation1 of the variation of the MTBF appears to be 25%. Note that the estimated MTBF is now based on historical data and the associated usage. If the usage of a system differs significantly from the past usage, it is hard to make a good estimate for the MTBF. Physical models An alternative way to determine the maintenance interval is to use physical failure models. These models enable the prediction of the component service life for a given component loading. Since the component loads are related to the usage of the system, detailed system knowledge allows the calculation of these loads. The corresponding service life can be calculated when the governing failure mechanism is known and a quantitative failure model is available. In this way, the assumed usage of the system can be translated into a MTBF [8]. The variation in MTBF depends on the one hand on variations in usage and on the other hand on variations in material properties and component dimensions. The effect of these variations on the MTBF can be quantified with stochastic analyses (e.g. Monte Carlo simulations). Using physical models implies that the relation between usage and service life is quantified. Therefore, changes in usage can easily be taken into account when calculating the expected MTBF. 5.2 Maintenance program execution As soon as the asset enters service, the execution of the developed maintenance program must be started. In addition to execution of the different maintenance tasks (repair, replacement, inspection) it is very useful to collect relevant maintenance and inspection data. This data, e.g. component failure times or inspection results, can be used to evaluate and update the maintenance program, as will be discussed in the next section. The structured collection of the data and well-organized storage of the information in a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is very important. A lot of these CMMS software packages are available nowadays and they are widely used by the larger companies. When a condition monitoring system is operative, the amount of collected data is much larger, since many CM systems monitor their system real-time at rather high sampling rates. In this case it is even more important to make good arrangements for the data storage, preferably in a suitable CMMS. Several commercial CMM systems enable the direct connection with a CM system. 5.3 Evaluation and prognostics Once a certain amount of maintenance data has been collected, analysis of the data to evaluate the selected maintenance program is required. When fixed preventive maintenance intervals are used, the gathered data can be used to update the length of the intervals that have been estimated during the design. In case of condition based maintenance, the collected condition data must be used to perform prognostics: a prediction for the remaining time to any maintenance activity must be made.

5.3.1 Updating (fixed) intervals

For the first issue, updating the used intervals, several statistical methods are available. In general, these methods determine the characteristics of the data set by fitting a statistical
1

Stork AMS presentation on reliability and maintenance engineering tools, 6 November 2009, Drunen.

15 distribution, e.g. a Weibull, normal or lognormal distribution, to the data. The distribution parameters are calculated and the goodness-of-fit is quantified. The resulting distributions can be applied to determine the expected average failure time (MTBF) or the failure time associated to a certain probability of failure. These results can be used to update the maintenance intervals. In case of a Weibull analysis, the shape of the distribution function also indicates the type of failure behaviour, since different values of the shape parameter are associated to infant mortality, constant failure rate and wear-out behaviour. Another way to validate the used intervals is the application of condition assessments, in which the physical condition of the replaced parts or components is checked. This condition assessment provides an indication for the remaining life of the component, which may be used to update the replacement intervals. Similarly, a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of failed parts yields insight in the failure mechanisms and processes, which also provides valuable information to validate or modify the applied intervals.

5.3.2 Prognostics
For condition based maintenance, the second issue of the prognostics is very important. This can again be approached in two different ways: statistically and by physical modelling. The statistical approach consists of checking the trends in the failure behaviour of components as described by the statistical distributions. The Reliability Growth method is used to quantify changes in performance (e.g. in terms of MTBF) in time, for example due to changes in usage profile or improvements in the maintenance strategy. By extrapolating these trends into the future, an estimate of expected failure times (prognosis) can be obtained. These type of methods are widely used in vibration analysis to predict remaining lives for components like bearings, where the trends in vibration patterns or levels are extrapolated into the future. Alternatively, physical failure models can be applied to predict the remaining life of a component. As was explained in 5.1.4, this enables quantifying the relation between usage and damage accumulation. Compared to the statistical prognostic methods, there are two important advantages. Firstly, the prognosis is not based on historical data only, which means that changes in usage or operational conditions can be taken into account. And secondly, the uncertainty in the prediction of the remaining life (caused by variations in usage, materials and dimensions) can be reduced significantly by including their effect in the failure model. This means that much less conservative intervals can be used, which largely increases the efficiency of the maintenance process, as was shown in a recent project [8]. 5.4 Optimization The final step in finding an optimal maintenance strategy is the use of modelling and simulation techniques to compare different scenarios. This step can be done in parallel with the previous three steps, although the benefit is larger when more data is available. The optimization process can be done at several levels of complexity, ranging from manually comparing a small number of different scenarios to finding the real optimum under several constraints using sophisticated mathematical optimization algorithms. Quantities that are often optimized or used as constraints (minimal, maximum allowable values) are reliability, availability and costs. The manual comparison implies the definition of a small number of scenarios which are expected to improve the process efficiency. To be able to incorporate the statistical nature of the failure processes, as characterized by the distribution functions, a Monte Carlo method is often applied to simulate the processes. This means that for each scenario a large number of simulations is performed, for which the parameter values are randomly taken from the

16 appropriate distributions. The result is a quantification of the reliability or availability of a system and the associated costs, which enables comparison of the different scenarios and selection of the most suitable strategy. In the research field of quantitative maintenance modelling, processes are mathematically optimized in terms of costs or reliability. A large amount of methods, e.g. [9-11], have been developed in the last decades for a wide variety of maintenance concepts (with or without inspections, repair (full or minimal), component replacement, etc.). All these optimization methods, both the manual and the full optimization methods, require two types of input: quantification of the costs of all maintenance activities (repair, inspection, replacement, down-time, etc.) a quantitative description of the degradation process that is responsible for failure of the system The optimization yields values for the optimal replacement intervals, inspection intervals or decides whether a component must be replaced or repaired. However, although the methods to calculate the costs or to optimize a strategy are readily available, the largest problem is the collection of useful input data. The methods will only provide a reliable solution when the costs and degradation can be quantified accurately. In most cases, the costs of the different activities can be obtained, but an accurate description of the degradation is often hard to define. The latter is therefore often described by a stochastic process (e.g. gamma process [11], Poisson process), for which the parameters have to be determined from measured service data. Since that data is often hard to obtain or available in limited amounts, recently methods have been proposed based on fuzzy logic [10]. However, the uncertainty in the prediction of the degradation behaviour, associated to variations in usage and material properties, leads to uncertainty in the predicted optimal strategy. As was mentioned before, this uncertainty could be reduced considerably by replacing the statistical description of the failure behaviour by physical failure models [8]. Whereas optimizing the maintenance on a component level is rather straightforward, the optimization on the system level (covering a large number of components) is more complex due to the interaction of the reliability of several components on the overall system reliability. For example, the application of redundancy in the system largely affects the system reliability, while the component reliability is still the same. A useful tool to analyse the system reliability is Reliability Block Diagram (RBD), which visualizes the component dependencies (serial or parallel) and supports the calculation of the system reliability. Without the precise knowledge of the degradation process, optimization in an absolute manner is difficult. However, comparing different scenarios for an assumed usage and associated degradation behaviour is possible in many cases. In the context of the present document, that would enable the comparison of maintenance strategies with and without condition monitoring, as will be explained in the example below.

5.4.1 Example: quantifying the (financial) benefit of CBM

On deciding whether an asset is suitable for condition based maintenance, one of the most important questions to answer is whether application of CBM provides a financial or safety benefit. This question can be answered by comparing two scenarios, one with and one without condition monitoring, using the methods described above. This requires quantification of the costs for the required maintenance activities, but also quantification of the financial benefits of preventing failures. Application of a CBM system can yield cost advantages in two ways:

17 the standard maintenance intervals can be extended, since repair or replacement is triggered by the actual condition of the system unexpected failures can be prevented using the information about the system condition A good indication of the potential cost advantage associated to interval extension can be obtained by determining the remaining service life of the components at the moment they are replaced (at the standard intervals). The benefit of preventing failures is governed by the repair costs for the component and other resulting damage and by the costs of system down-time. This can be simulated numerically by comparing the two scenarios, using relevant numbers for the frequency or the probability of an unexpected failure (Table 1) and the costs of all relevant maintenance activities (see Table 2). Then a numerical description of the failure process is required, either as a stochastic / statistical formulation or physical failure model. A Monte Carlo analysis can then be performed to calculate the total costs at a required reliability level for both scenarios, which provides the quantification of the benefit of CBM. Table 1 Costs and frequency of unexpected failures. Event unexpected failure costs replacement / repair, down-time, other damage probability pf

Table 2 Costs and intervals of maintenance activities. Activity component replacement inspection repair costs spare part, replacement costs (labour costs, consumables), down-time labour costs, down-time material, labour costs, down-time interval I1 I2 I3

Even when a detailed failure process description is not available and a simulation is thus not feasible, an indication of the remaining service life of replaced components and global comparison of the costs mentioned in Table 1 and Table 2 can provide a reasonable estimate of the benefit of CBM. 5.5 Software packages The methods described in the previous sections have been implemented in a large number of commercial software codes. The main division that can be made in these codes is between general purpose codes that include several tools and support the complete maintenance program definition and execution, and specific codes that focus on only one of the analysis tools, like FMECA or RCM. The general purpose codes are convenient, since all analyses can be performed within the same code. Also, connections to condition monitoring (CM) or maintenance management (CMMS) systems are often possible. On the other hand, the codes for one specific analysis tool often provide more sophisticated options for that specific analysis and may therefore be the appropriate choice for some detailed analyses. An overview of a large number of codes is given on the Plant Maintenance Resource Center website2.

http://www.plant-maintenance.com/

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5.5.1 Benchmark
Stork AMS recently performed a benchmark on the general purpose software codes, focusing on the following packages: Meridium APM, Meridium RCMO, IVARA EXP and Isograph Availability workbench. The strong points of each of these codes is given below: Meridium APM: interfaces with various CMMS (e.g. SAP, MAXIMO, Datastream) complete reliability analysis suite can be build up in a modular way extensive optimization options Meridium RCMO basic version of APM, only classical RCM and FMECA low-level reliability analyses, limited optimization options integration in SAP (add-on) IVARA EXP Pro interfaces with various CMMS (e.g. SAP, MAXIMO) excellent Condition Monitoring feature medium level reliability / optimization Isograph Availability workbench certified interface with SAP and MAXIMO high level reliability extensive simulation and optimization options Recently, IVARA and Isograph decided to combine their activities in one code, which means that IVARA EXP Pro now also enables high level reliability analyses and provides extensive simulation and optimization options. However, note that the optimization in all these codes still consists of comparing manually defined scenarios. None of these codes enables the full (mathematical) optimization of the maintenance strategy.

5.5.2 Maintenance modelling and optimization

Numerous scientific papers have been published in this field the last decades, providing several optimization methods. These methods have not yet been implemented in the large general purpose codes as discussed in the previous section. Practical application of these methods therefore requires coding the equations in mathematical software packages. This can be done in general codes like Excel or Matlab, but also more specialized packages like Entreprise Dynamics are available. Also the use of physical failure models in reliability analyses is not yet common practice. Therefore, also the application of these methods requires coding the models in mathematical software packages, that may be connected to the reliability codes. 5.6 Sensors The key aspect of any condition monitoring system is the collection of load or condition data. This requires sensors that are able to measure the required quantities with sufficient accuracy. A wide variety of sensors is available nowadays. The most commonly used sensor types are described here, starting with a number of commonly used and dependable sensors:

19 vibration sensor: measures displacements, velocities or accelerations to monitor the dynamic behaviour of a system; widely used in vibration monitoring systems for e.g. bearings. temperature sensor: measures temperature; wide variety of sensor types, e.g. thermocouple. pressure sensor: measures gas / fluid pressure; strain gauge: measures deformation of a structural part; based on electrical resistance measurement. Some more sophisticated sensors, which have been developed more recently and have not been applied as extensively as the above mentioned sensors: oil sensor: monitors water content or particle content of oil to detect component wear or seal degradation; rather new development, replaces laboratory analysis of manual oil samples. Fibre Bragg grating: optical fibre based sensor that quantifies straining of the fibre by detecting changes in transmitted or reflected wave lengths; can also be used to construct temperature and pressure sensors. delamination sensor: detects delamination between different layers in composite materials; can be integrated in structure. crack length sensor: measures the length of cracks in a structure, usually based on electrical resistance measurements. In the last decades, structural health monitoring (SHM) is getting much attention. Sensors are integrated into structures and enable the real monitoring of structural integrity. Especially composite structures are very suitable for these techniques, since (fibre based) sensors can be integrated into the structures rather easily during the manufacturing process. 5.7 Future developments Reliability and maintenance engineering methods are traditionally based on statistical methods. Moreover, the maintenance world is rather conservative, which means that existing methods are still believed to be the best choice and innovation is limited. However, integration of existing reliability methods with the physical principles of failure offers a large potential for maintenance process improvements. Especially for prognostic methods, which are very important for condition based maintenance, the knowledge of the failure mechanisms is essential. Therefore, considerable (research) effort should be put in the development of innovative methods that cross the traditional borders between reliability engineering and structural integrity modelling.

20

6 Guidelines for Condition Based Maintenance

Based on the general requirements for condition based maintenance that were discussed in chapter 3, a decision scheme has been developed that assists in deciding whether a certain asset is suitable for CBM and in developing an appropriate condition monitoring system. The decision scheme is shown in Figure 6-1 and requires answering the subsequent questions. For most of the questions a reference to relevant information is added (left-hand column), where the numbers refer to the sections in this report.

21

Decision scheme Condition Based Maintenance

Information (section)
FMECA (5.1.1) RCM (5.1.2) A1) possible to identify critical components, failure mechanism & associated condition parameters ? YES Sensors available (5.6) ? Location accesible ? Data collection possible ? NO Asset NOT SUITABLE for CBM Purchase & install WCMC - T.Tinga

NO

A2) can these parameters be measured ?

YES Prognostic or predictive tools available ? (5.3) A3) can measured quantities be translated into maintenance intervals / failures ? YES Cost Optimization (5.4) A4) does application of CBM yield financial or safety benefit ? YES A5) possible to implement CBM in organization ? NO NO

NO

YES

Proven methods (4)

YES A6) is commercial CBM system available ?

NO Develop customized system consider following aspects:

(3.1)

B1) is condition assessed directly or indirectly ?

Selection of sensors, location, data collection, frequency (3.1) CMMS integration ?

B2) what is best method to measure ?

Prognostic tools (5.3)

B3) how to obtain maintenance intervals from data ?

Trending (5.3)

B4) determine critical values for measured parameters or trends

Legislation, authorities, insurance, safety

B5) are there any boundary conditions to consider ?

Figure 6-1 Decision scheme Condition Based Maintenance. The bold printed numbers in the left column refer to sections in this report.

22

7 Case studies
The pilot projects executed by Wartsila and Gasunie will serve as case studies. Application of the developed guidelines will be demonstrated. 7.1 Description of the Gasunie pilot The Gasunie pilot is a research project to investigate in practice the possibilities of monitoring techniques to determine the condition of a gas turbine compressor installation during operation. These type of compressor installations often experience a lot of start-up and shutdowns, depending on the actual gas transmission demand. Since October 2008 a selection of existing machine signals are collected continuously for analysis. During the course of the pilot project, the need to collect additional machine signals and other relevant process or environment parameters would become clear. Before the pilot actually could begin, a selection process was performed to select suitable assets of the Gasunie infrastructure for a Condition Monitoring test. After that process led to the selection of a gas driven compressor installation, a Streamlined Reliability Centered Maintenance (SRCM) study was performed to define appropriate maintenance tasks for different components.

7.1.1 Gasunie selection process

Gasunie has many assets and different types of assets. To judge whether CBM could be a suitable maintenance strategy for an certain asset, four criteria have been checked [12]: 1. Applicability: is CBM the right maintenance strategy and are there applicable technologies? - is the need for maintenance triggered by a continuous degradation process or merely by unexpected events leading to an abrupt failure of the asset ? - are monitoring techniques available to detect the condition of a system without interfering its operation ? 2. Feasibility: can the maintenance strategy be implemented ? - are resources available ? - are the monitoring techniques safe enough ? 3. Improvement potential of the individual asset - what is the improvement potential with regard to availability and reliability ? - what is the expected reduction in life cycle costs ? 4. Impact on the whole business - can the maintenance strategy for the individual asset be copied to other assets of the same type or even to different type of assets ? - will the better performance of this individual asset lead to a substantial better performance of the gas transmission network ? By checking these four aspects for potential assets, the suitability of the asset for the CBM pilot was determined. That answers part of the questions mentioned in 3.1, but also some specific issues were not addressed at this stage: o which quantities govern the maintenance needs of the asset ? o can the (values or trends in) measured quantities be translated into maintenance intervals? Further, the economical advantage of applying CBM is checked, but the actual quantification of this advantage remains difficult. This issue is also addressed in section 5.4. As a result of the described process, a gas driven compressor installation has been selected for the CBM pilot project.

23

7.1.2 SRCM study of the compressor installation

Gasunie has performed a Streamlined Reliability Centered Maintenance (SRCM) study lead by SKF for the selected compressor installation. It provides a good indication for the required maintenance tasks within a full time week study. Explanation of the SRCM method Streamlined Reliability Centered Maintenance (SRCM) is a relatively short RCM study. Objective of the SRCM study is to define appropriate maintenance tasks for different components of a system. Essentially three steps have to be taken: - identify the important system functions - define preventive maintenance tasks to be performed - update the existing maintenance program To define the preventive maintenance tasks, it is important to distinct critical components from non-critical components. For critical components, preventive maintenance tasks should be defined or a change in the design of the installation should be proposed. For non-critical components, simple preventive maintenance tasks should be defined or Run-To-Failure should be adopted. To be able to make a distinction between critical and non-critical, business goals should be clear as well as their translation to asset level in terms of costs, safety, reliability, availability and sustainability. A Criticality Matrix helps to make a Risk Assessment of possible component failures by estimating the failure frequency and the severity of the consequences of a failure. Everything which has a high or medium risk score (red/orange sector) is considered as critical. The low risk score (green) is judged as non-critical. A multidisciplinary team (departments) should perform the SRCM study to cover all relevant aspects and stages of the maintenance cycle. This Key Group should at least contain representatives of Operations, Maintenance and Plant Engineering departments. A Plant Manager and a Corporate Representative should be involved to support changes in the existing maintenance procedures. SRCM study of the compressor installation Two subsystems of the compressor installation have been chosen for the SRCM analysis: the oil system (seal oil and lubricants) and the fuel gas system. The maintenance of these subsystems is completely done by Gasunie. There was lack of time and lack of knowledge to analyze the gas generator subsystem, for which essential maintenance is performed by the OEM. The boundaries of the two subsystems were set and the components were defined with help of SAP, with PID's and with help of actual system knowledge of Operations and Maintenance people. Each component (more than 80) for the both subsystems was analyzed with regard to function, failure modes, failure causes, criticality and maintenance tasks. The first day it turned out to be a time-consuming process due to unfamiliarity with the SRCM process and due to extensive discussions about the failure causes and criticality. SRCM is not intended to cover all possible failure causes, but only the dominant ones. The analysis was facilitated with a SKF SRCM software tool. It structured the process and the inputs and results could easily be found. In total, 61 maintenance tasks have been defined for the two subsystems. The majority of these tasks had a "mechanical" background. The SKF trainer thought the tasks with an "electrical" background had not been represented enough. During this study week, the defined tasks were not systematically compared with the existing maintenance tasks. However, in some cases the maintenance engineers knew that some proposed inspection intervals of components differed

24 from the existing intervals. For several critical components condition monitoring was suggested as a feasible maintenance task (two new) whereas some non-critical components were newly categorized as run-to-failure. 7.2 Description of the Wrtsil pilot The Wrtsil pilot concerns the development of a Condition Monitoring System for a steerable thruster (see Figure 7-2) in order to perform Condition Based Maintenance. In this section the pilot study concerning this development is described and especially the selection of the parameters to be monitored is discussed. This work has been done within Wrtsil in two consecutive WCMC projects since 2007 [6, 13]. The first project in the first round of WCMC started with a literature research on vibration and oil monitoring and an investigation on the wear behaviour of sliding bearings. Also the pilot on the Condition Monitoring System for steerable thrusters was started with the selection of sensors, wireless data transmission, data acquisition and remote access and the building and testing of the wireless transmission system (disruptions, stability and the implementation of filters). In the second project, the work on the pilot continued with the building of demonstrator used to validate the online system and remote access. Also, the Condition Monitoring System (wireless transmission, sensors) was build into a real thruster. In the validation trial on the demonstrator the wireless transmission, the attenuation of signals (accelerometers), oil monitoring, the online system and the remote access were tested. In the next subsections the process of selecting the appropriate monitoring parameters is described. This process has been supported by using both a combination of FMECA and RAMS tools and the RCM method.

7.2.1 Motivation to apply condition based maintenance

Wrtsil manufactures different kinds of thrusters. Most of the thrusters are fixed to the vessel and can only be accessed when the vessel is docked. This means that the thruster maintenance intervals must be equal to the intervals in between to dockings, so for these thrusters condition based maintenance does not yield any benefit. However, for the modular thruster it is possible to choose an under water mountable thruster. Those thrusters are best applied on vessels that are either too big to go into a dry-dock, or vessels that are intended to stay out of dry-dock for periods longer than the (classification prescribed) docking intervals.

Figure 7-1 Underwater mountable thruster. When a full inspection of the thruster is required, the mounting sequence shown in Figure 7-1 can be reversed, thus demounting the removable part. The removed part can then directly be

25 replaced by a spare removable part. The removable part can be overhauled either onboard or after shipping it to the shore. Due to the flexibility in maintenance intervals, condition based maintenance may be beneficial for this type of thruster. The CM system enables early detection of faults. Based on the severity of the fault the decision can be made to exchange the removable part of the thruster by the spare one that is onboard. In this way, there is no need to leave the present job and sail to a docking place, which saves a lot of money. More precisely, with a Condition Monitoring System the condition of main components of the propulsion units can be monitored, resulting in: early detection of deterioration of components like bearings and gears reducing the risk of unplanned maintenance and dry-docking decreasing down time withdrawal or postponement of inspection intervals Each of these aspects can save money and increase the operational performance of the system.

7.2.2 CMS development using FMECA and RAMS

In this section the development of the CM system is described. FMECA and RAMS tools are used to select the appropriate condition parameters. Firstly the possible monitoring parameters in the thruster are determined, then the critical components are identified and finally the failure modes and their causes are assessed. The latter enables the definition of governing monitoring parameters and their critical levels. Identification of possible monitoring parameters The development of the CM system started with the identification of possible measurements on a steerable thruster. A lot of items can be technically measured: Device responses with normal sensors as installed (no additional sensors for CMS). Quality of lubricant Fatigue measurement by strain gauges Device performance, efficiency Device thermal behaviour: pressures, mass-flow and temperature Vibration and acoustic characteristics for wear-out. Figure 7-2 shows a selection of thruster parameters that can be measured. The responses of the device (for instance steering) will be provided by the controls of the steerable thruster. To monitor the quality of the lubricant, water ingress via seals and additives or particles in the oil can be measured by a saturation and a contamination sensor, respectively. The thermal behaviour can be measured by two temperature sensors in the oil. Vibration characteristics for wear-out of gears and bearings can be measured by six accelerometers placed near gears and bearings. Vibration time signals can be measured and RMS trends and frequency spectra can be generated.

26

Figure 7-2 Steerable thruster parameters The parameters characterizing the operational environment to be measured are (see Figure 7-3): Motions, attitude, movement Position Demand and load

Figure 7-3 Operational parameters Identification of critical components and influence on maintenance Before the measured data can be transformed into useful information for the maintenance process, the thruster system must be laid down. In the WCMC report WP 3: Design for Reliability and Availability [6] a functional breakdown of the thruster system was made by going

27 from sub-functions (main units) to critical components. The blocks in the functional breakdown are divided in three parts: Function Technical requirements to perform the function The system/subsystem/assembly or component The consequences of failure at local level, as well as at system level are investigated in a (functional) failure mode and criticality analysis, FMECA. For each component/assembly in the steerable thruster system at least one failure mode has been determined. Each failure mode may have one or more failure causes. For each failure mode the local capacity by normal operation on component level, the remaining local capacity by failure on component level and the capacity by failure on system level is determined. The lubrication system, for example, contains a redundant pump assembly with E-motor. The local capacity in normal operation is 100% (= flow), remaining local capacity by failure is 0% (= no flow) and the remaining system capacity is 100% (= flow) because of the redundant pump assembly. The result of this FMECA is displayed in Figure 7-4.

Figure 7-4 FMECA results for the thruster (confidential). When focussing on the parts which are mostly maintained by only Wrtsil the most important subsystem and assemblies are: Upper gearbox (UGB): Seals and bearings Stemsection (Stem): Seals and steering motor assy Propeller gearbox (PGB): Seal assembly and bearings The preventive maintenance costs (replacement) of seals and bearings is high. To perform replacement of these parts the thruster must be taken out of the ship, which is a costly action. It is also shown in Figure 7-4 that certain failure modes of the bearing, gear set and the steering gear have a high criticality score in the performed FMECA. Based on the performed FMECA it was decided to focus on the Propeller Gearbox (PGB). Failure modes and required monitoring parameters For each of these assemblies or components it is important to investigate what the failure modes and failure causes are, how and where these causes can be measured, what guidelines for the measured values are and how the combination of these measured parameters influences the lifetime of each assembly or component. In Figure 7-5 an overview of the thruster with the

28 gear-set and the bearings is shown. The failure modes for the bearings, seals and gears are discussed next.

Figure 7-5 Overview of the bearings and the gear-set of the thruster. Bearings The failure modes and mechanisms of bearings are summarized in Table 3. As can be observed, the cause of bearing failure in both cases is a insufficient or bad lubrication. The cause of failure and local effects can be detected by one of the three following parameters: Vibrations near the bearing Oil temperature Particles and water in oil Therefore, these parameters will be monitored during operation and action will be taken when one of these parameters exceeds a critical value. Guidelines to determine the critical value are obtained from a maintenance manual and ISO standards. The monitored quantities are: Vibrations: RMS velocity Failure frequency bearing: natural frequency bearing, ball pass frequency inner ring (BPFI), ball pass frequency outer ring (BPFO), ball spin frequency (BSF). Temperature Particles: contamination level Water: saturation level Table 3 Failure mode bearings
Assembly/ component Failure mode Failure mechanisms Local Effect System effect Failure causes Insufficient/ bad lubrication safeguards

Bearings

Seized bearing

Surface fatigue

Noise from thruster (possible higher temperature oil)

Total loss of propulsion

Temperature alarm on lubrication system, oil filter, oil samples (water/particles) Temperature alarm on lubrication system, oil filter, oil samples (water/particles), trending vibration

Crack formation on rings and balls or rollers

Vibration of thruster (possible higher temperature oil)

Total loss of propulsion

Insufficient/ bad lubrication

When one of the monitored parameters exceeds the critical value, action must be taken. However, determination of the time span that is available to perform that action still has to be

29 determined. This is the prognostics part of the CBM system, used to determine the remaining life (see section 7.2.4 and Figure 7-6). Seals of the propeller gearbox (PGB) The failure modes and mechanisms of seals are summarized in Table 4. As can be observed the cause of failure for each component of the seal assembly is inadequate lubrication or contaminants (ingress of debris). The cause can not be detected directly by sensors but the local effects and failure mode can be detected by the following parameters: Water in oil Oil level in monitoring tank Therefore, these parameters will be monitored during operation and action will be taken when one of these parameters exceeds a critical value. Table 4 Failure modes for the PGB seal.
Assembly/co mponent Seal rings Failure mode Leakage Failure mechanisms Wear Local Effect Loss of oil, pollution, water ingress Loss of oil, pollution, water ingress System effect No direct system effect when leakage is not too much, but repairs are needed No direct system effect when leakage is not too much, but repairs are needed Failure causes Inadequate lubrication, Contaminants (ingress of debris) Inadequate lubrication (idle period between use), Contaminants (ingress of debris), thermal degradation Inadequate lubrication, Contaminants (ingress of debris)galvanic corrosion safeguards Monitoring tank, saturation and contamination sensor Monitoring tank, saturation and contamination sensor

Seal rings

Leakage

Embrittle ment

Liner coating

Leakage

Wear

Loss of oil, pollution, water ingress

No direct system effect when leakage is not too much, but repairs are needed

Monitoring tank, saturation and contamination sensor

Liner bus

Leakage

Wear

Loss of oil, pollution, water ingress

No direct system effect when leakage is not too much, but repairs are needed

Inadequate lubrication, Contaminants (ingress of debris), galvanic corrosion

Monitoring tank, saturation and contamination sensor

The guideline for the critical value for the saturation level of the oil as indicated for bearings will kept as a guideline. For the oil level in the monitoring tank the critical value can be found in the maintenance manual. Gears The failure modes and mechanisms of gears are summarized in Table 5. As can be observed the local effect of gear failure for each component are vibrations of the thruster. The causes of these failures are misalignment, insufficient / bad lubrication or shock loads. The cause and local effects can be detected by the following parameters: Particles and water in oil Vibration near the gear Load Therefore, these parameters will be monitored during operation and action will be taken when one of these parameters exceeds a critical value.

30 Table 5 Failure modes for the gears.

Assembly/co mponent Gear teeth Failure mode Fatigue damage teeth Fatigue damage teeth Failure mechanisms Bending (load concentration on the toe of the gear) Pitting (wear mechanism that results from cyclic compressive load stresses that exceed the materials endurance limit) Overload breakage Local Effect Vibration of thruster Vibration of thruster System effect Total loss of propulsion Total loss of propulsion Failure causes Misalignment safeguards Inspection of gear-set Inspection of gear-set

Insufficient/bad lubrication

Gear Tooth

Tooth breakage/ tooth damage Tooth breakage/toot h damage Tooth breakage/toot h damage

Vibration of thruster Vibration of thruster

Total loss of propulsion Total loss of propulsion

Shock load

Inspection of gear-set Inspection of gear-set

Wear (moderate, abrasive, corrosive wear)

Insufficient/bad lubrication

Mounting error/bearing failure/housing deformation

Vibration of thruster

Total loss of propulsion

Misalignment

Inspection of gear-set

Guidelines to determine the critical value are obtained from the Wrtsil maintenance manual and ISO standards for: Vibrations: RMS velocity Gear mesh frequency (GMF) Temperature Particles: contamination level Water: saturation level This completes the identification of the failure modes for the critical components: bearings, seals and gears. Knowing the failure causes and the contributing factors, the appropriate condition monitoring parameters could be defined together with their critical values.

7.2.3 CMS development using RCM

Another way to decide whether CBM is a suitable maintenance strategy for a certain asset, is the application of a Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) decision scheme as used by Wrtsil during the previous round of WCMC [6]. This scheme is based on subjective valuation of the consequences of failure (how critical is failure ?), in combination with the failure rate. The failure rate can either be constant in time (failure is bad luck, sometimes happens early, sometimes late) or increasing in time (associated with some degradation process like wear). The criticality of failure follows from a FMECA analysis (see 7.2.2). Depending on the answers, the RCM method advises either corrective or one of the types of preventive maintenance: on condition, time based (calendar or use-based) or testing and inspection. RCM on water filter separator An RCM analysis was performed on one specific part (module) of the thruster system. In the WCMC project [6] a special filter separator, which has been built in the lubrication system of the thruster, was selected. This filter is used to take free water out of the lubrication oil. The filter consists of the following submodels: pump, electrical pre-heater, filter separator, pressure switch, water discharger, terminal box and automatic water drain. Every sub-module is

31 subdivided in components. For the E-motor of the pump the subdivision in components is shown in Table 6. Table 6 Breakdown of the E-motor of the pump.

For every failure mode the RCM decision scheme is used to fill in the RCM decision sheet. The result for the E-motor of the filter set is shown in Table 7. Table 7 RCM decision sheet for the E-motor of the pump.

The ball bearing of the E-motor is taken as an example here. For the ball bearing the RCM decision is as follows: Failure is not revealed (or not apparent), it can be hardly seen or heard. The degradation is measurable (for instance by vibration measurement). Condition monitoring (vibration measurements) could be cost effective. Consequences of failure are not trivial (or not insignificant); costs related to damage because of unfiltered oil in the system will influence the health of the thruster system. The maintenance advice based on the analysis is that condition monitoring could be considered. If condition monitoring is not cost-effective an optimal preventive maintenance (PM ) interval can be applied.

7.2.4 Condition Based Maintenance

Once the condition monitoring system is defined, it must be applied to perform condition based maintenance. This requires the translation of the collected condition data into appropriate

32 maintenance information, which is the prognostics part of CBM. A schematic overview of the Wrtsil CBM system is shown in Figure 7-6. The selection of a prognostic method is still under development. The available methods are described in this section. Vibration prognostics Analysis of vibration data requires trained and experienced personnel aided by proprietary software packages for data storage, interactive data analysis and rule-based expert system analysis. The confidence of fault diagnosis can be improved by using a range of failure indicators including performance indices, oil analysis, thermograph and motor current readings in conjunction with vibration analysis. These indicators are generally assimilated and analysed by human experts, but new computational expert systems can assist in performing these analyses. Promising computational methods are based on the following techniques: Neural networks Fuzzy logic Bayesian theory Hybrid techniques containing the previous three elements

Figure 7-6 Overview of CBM system, including a prognostic part used to determine the remaining life. Effects of loading on bearing and gear service life To quantify the effect of loads and usage conditions on the service life of gears and bearings, several phenomenological relations are available. These relations can assist in predicting the (remaining) service life under given conditions. For the failure rate of a bearing the following formula is used [14]: BE =BE,B * Cy * C*CCW * Ct BE BE,B Cy C CCW = = = (LA/Ls)3,3 = (o/L)0,54 =1,04+1,03*Cw-0,065*Cw2 Failure rate of bearing, failures/million revolutions B10 life of the bearing Multiplying factor for applied load Multiplying factor for lubricant Multiplying factor for water contaminant level

33 Ct =1 (for T<183C) Multiplying Factor for operating temperature

For the failure rate of a gear set a similar formula is used [14]: G =G,B * CGS * CGP*CGA * CGL* CGT*CGV G = Failure rate of gear under specific operation, failures/million operating hours G,B = Base failure rate of gear as specified by manufacturer, failures/million operating hours CGS =1+(Vo/Vd)0,7 = Multiplying factor considering speed deviation with respect to design CGP =((Lo/LD)/0,5)4,69 Multiplying factor considering actual gear loading with respect to design CGA =12,44*AE2,36= Multiplying factor considering misalignment CGL =(o/L)0,54= Multiplying factor considering lubrication deviation w.r.t. design CGT = 1 (t < 71 C) = Multiplying factor considering the operating temperature CGV Multiplying factor considering the AGMA Service Factor =

34

8 Validation of the guidelines

For the Wrtsil pilot, the process followed during the CBM system development has been judged using the guidelines from section 6. This also validates the developed decision scheme. 8.1 Validation of the Wrtsil pilot The decision scheme has been used to assess the development process of the CM system on the Wrtsil thrusters. To limit the effort, only the bearing of the propeller gearbox in a steerable thruster is used as the critical component in this case. The assessment is divided into two parts: checking whether the asset is suitable for CBM and developing a customized CM system.

8.1.1 Is the asset suitable for CBM ?

A1 yes possible to identify critical components, failure mechanism & associated condition parameters ? The FMECA and RCM analyses provided the following results: Critical components: For instance bearings Failure mechanism: Surface fatigue, crack formation on rings, ball Condition parameter: Vibration, oil quality, oil contamination, wear elements can these parameters be measured ? The sub questions regarding the measurements are answered as follows: Sensors available ? Accelerometers, temperature sensors, contamination sensor and saturation sensor Location accessible ? Sensors inside during overhaul, sensors outside always accessible Data collection possible ? Wireless transmission, oil monitoring system can measured quantities be translated into maintenance intervals / failures ? The options are: Trending Thruster and operational parameters (PLC) Analyzing Vibrations and trends (visualisation, analysis) Condition based maintenance and Confidential Prognostics (future) does application of CBM yield financial or safety benefit ? The financial benefits of applying CBM are summarized as follows: Financial benefits All thrusters must be available during Dynamic Positioning, when one fails the vessel will loose redundancy. In case of a warning or alarm one can stop the thruster: * Environmental pollution can be prevented. * Consequential loss can be prevented * Downtime shall be reduced, operational availability will be higher * In case of healthy thruster, vessel will not go into dock possible to implement CBM in organization ? The Wartsila service organisation is in place to support condition based maintenance of thrusters: is commercial CBM system available ? In this case no suitable commercial CM system is available for the complete application, although parts of the system are (vibration analysis, oil sensors). CBM Steerable Thruster Integrated commercial system for the specific thruster application is not available.

A2 yes

A3 partly

A4 yes

A5 yes A6 no

Since all but the final questions have been answered positively, the asset appears to be suitable for condition based maintenance, although there is some uncertainty about the translation of the measured data into useful maintenance information. The plans for the prognostics are described below. The final question has been answered with No, which means that the second

35 part of the decision scheme is also used to decide how a customized CM system has to be developed. This part is treated in the next section. Planned prognostics for condition based maintenance of thruster bearings At this moment a PLC system is available for collecting oil monitoring and operational parameters, and a wireless transmission system coupled to a vibration monitoring system for monitoring the thruster parameters. There is dedicated software for trending (visualization) parameters and analyzing vibrations. The following method is used within Wrtsil: Create baseline (thruster parameters: vibrations (reference spectrum), temperatures, rpm, load.) Set alarm and warning values (based on guidelines: ISO4406, ISO/DIS10816-3, ISO 2372, internal guidelines) Measurement of trends (absolute values, change of trends in time, vibration spectra) o Trending/Analyzing software will be used to visualize trends In case of a warning an upcoming failure is under development: o Trending/Analyzing software will be used to analyze parameters: vibrations (FFT, enveloping, RMS), oil monitoring o The database of the applied bearings will be used in order to couple the failure frequencies and harmonics to the bearings/accelerometers o The software will be used to go back in time and see when the natural frequency of the mounted bearing and the bearing casing started to develop. In case of growing wear the failure frequencies of the bearings and more harmonics will come and sidebands will grow around the defect frequencies and around the natural frequencies of the bearing. The bearing need to be replaced. The amplitude of the natural frequency can be used to adjust the band alarm in the system. The system can be used to correlate the vibrations with other parameters. The new online system will be upgraded with maintenance related info (replaced oil, filled up header tank, etc) Further development with regarding to prognostics are worked out.

36

8.1.2 Development of the customized system

B1 is condition assessed directly or indirectly ? Both direct (condition) parameters and indirect (performance) parameters are measured: Vibrations by accelerometers near bearings and gear set. Oil properties / quality by saturation / temperature sensor (viscosity) 3 and oil contamination by contamination sensor Indirect Electrical power versus ship speed Electrical power versus propulsive force what is best method to measure ? The subquestions regarding the measurements are answered as follows: Suitable sensor ? Vibrations -> accelerometer Oil quaility / contamination -> saturation / contamination sensor Location accessible ? Accelerometers -> only during overhaul (outboard part) Saturation and contamination sensor -> In lubrication system (inboard) Data collection possible ? Off-line -> local On-line -> remote Sample frequency ? Off-line -> periodical (e.g. once a week) On-line -> real-time \ daily how to obtain maintenance intervals from data ? At present ideas about how the measured quantities can be translated into maintenance information are worked out. The plans are summarized below and are described in more detail in [13]: Confidential Prognostics determine critical values for measured parameters or trends Direct

B2

B3

B4

B5

Critical values for the measured parameters are obtained from standards and other references: Oil contamination ISO4406 Vibration Severity ISO/DIS 10816-3, ISO2372 (ISO guide Machinery Vibration Severity) Vibration levels ABS Guide for Survey Based on Preventative Maintenance Techniques (2003) / SNAMEs T&R Bulletin 3-42 Guidelines for the use of Vibration Monitoring for Preventive Maintenance are there any boundary conditions to consider ? The naval classification authorities have guidelines for application of CBM: Det Norske Veritas (DNV) Guidance for Condition Monitoring, Classification Notes No.10.2, January 2003, Appendix H: Condition Monitoring for Propulsion and Position Thrusters American Bureau of Part 7 Section 14 Guidance for Survey Based on Preventive Shipping (ABS) Maintenance Techniques (2003), prescribing: * Extension of operation in case of CMS * Back-up capability * Items condition monitoring plan (rpm, load, data collection and analyzing tools, location and orientation of sensors, sampling procedure for oil analysis, schedule of data collection, baseline data, etc.) * Annual report (machinery id, baseline, all data since opening, FFT, trend analysis, operational data (sea state, temperature, quarterly overall vibration data) * On-board documentation

Since all questions in the table have been answered, this shows that all required issues in the development of a CM system have been considered for this pilot. Most of the issues could be
Advances in Real Time Oil Analysis, David C. Schalcosky and Carl S. Byington, Penn State University Applied Research Lab., 2000; Using the Three Categories of Oil Analysis to Assist in Diagnosis, Ashley Mayer Noria Corporation. Source: www.oilanalysis.com
3

37 solved, but as was the case in the first part of the assessment (A3), the translation of the monitoring data into maintenance information (issue B3) is not fully solved yet. Wrtsil is currently working on this aspect, which is the final key to make the CMS work. The details of this work can be found in [13].

8.1.3 Conclusion Wrtsil pilot

For the CMS of the thruster most of the questions were answered with yes, which means that the asset is suitable for condition based maintenance. The only question that could not be answered fully positively concerns the prognostics. It is especially that topic that is subject of the present research activities at Wrtsil and it is realized that this aspect will be decisive for the success of the CMS. 8.2 Validation of the Gasunie pilot Unfortunately, the Gasunie pilot could not be validated during this project using the developed guidelines. However, the Gasunie pilot demonstrated that some specific additional aspects should be considered during the development of a condition monitoring system: do the applied sensors comply with safety regulations ? are deviations from common maintenance practice (when implementing CBM ) authorized ? 8.3 Validation of the guidelines The guidelines and the associated decision scheme (Figure 6-1) have now been applied to the Wrtsil pilot, which means that their usefulness can be judged. The conclusion is that that the guideline gives a good structured method to asses whether an asset is suitable for CBM and, in case of the unavailability of a commercial system, to determine how a CM system should be developed. All relevant aspects in these selection processes are considered, which means that ultimately a well motivated decision can be made to either apply or not apply condition based maintenance.

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9 Conclusions
In this report a set of general guidelines for the application of Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) are developed, resulting in a decision scheme that can be used by any asset owner considering to use CBM. Moreover, additional information is provided about tools and methods that can assist in making these decisions. The pilot studies performed by Wrtsil and Gasunie on a steerable thruster and a gas compressor, respectively, are described and the development process of the CM system is verified using the guidelines. This demonstrated that for the Wrtsil pilot the large majority of the relevant aspects have been considered. The only remaining issue is the prognostics part, which must enable the translation of the monitored data into useful maintenance information. During the analysis of the pilots, the presented decision scheme appeared to be a useful tool to assess the process in a structured way. During the development of a customized condition monitoring system, it also helps to ensure that no aspects are missed.

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References
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