Prognostics and Health Management in the Oil & Gas Industry - A Step Change

Abstract

Traditionally the life cycle phases of a typical project in the Oil & Gas industry can be broken down into: Feasibility & Concept Design; Front End Engineering Design (FEED); Detail Design; Manufacture and Construction; Installation and Commissioning; Operation. A range of Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) tools are used throughout these phases in hazard identification and analysis, to understand the effects to the system as a result of the hazards and to eliminate/reduce/mitigate the identified hazards. These PHA tools are typically carried out independent from one another albeit from the same base documentation (e.g. P&ID’s) and they are subsequently documented independently e.g. Hazardous & Operability (HAZOP) study, Risk Analysis, Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA), Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) is a life cycle concept introducing an integrated approach to the health management of a system through the design and operation cycles. The design cycle can be broken down into: System Design; Identification and Analysis of Risk; Failure Modelling and how it affects the System in terms of Reliability/Availability/Maintainability. The operation cycle can be broken down into: Real-time Monitoring; Diagnostics; Failure Prediction; Determine Maintenance Strategies. Parallels can be drawn between life cycle phases in both the traditional approach and a PHM approach during project development. Therefore, if projects can be developed within a PHM environment, this may lead to greater integration between the stakeholders, with the potential for a technically superior product developed with cost and efficiency savings. The aim of this paper is to review the concepts of Functional Analysis within a PHM environment, to assess its suitability and applicability during the engineering design and operation of an Oil-Injected Rotary Screw Compressor. PHA tools, sensor set design and the organisation interfaces that exist between the stakeholders represented throughout the life cycle of a project shall be reviewed. The outcomes from the Functional Analysis modelling application, Maintenance Aware Design environment (MADe™) in terms of sensor set design and PHA tools shall be compared with the existing processes used in the traditional approach throughout the life cycle of a project. The paper shall also review the organisational interfaces that exist between the stakeholders that are represented throughout the life cycle of the project and how these relationships can deliver a safe, functional system that maximises reliability, availability and maintainability of the asset whilst facilitating fault detection/isolation and potential fault prediction. A functional model of the compressor package was created using the MADe™ functional modelling application. Functional analyses of key components were performed and sensors set options were reviewed for applicability and suitability. Key components were identified for functional failure analysis either from Offshore Reliability Data Handbook (OREDA, 2015), documentation supplied by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) or from a FMECA report derived from the functional model’s PHA suite of tools. The key roles and responsibilities of each of the stakeholders were analysed to explore shared responsibility, business outcomes and engineering/technical deliverables. The results demonstrate that functional analysis software applications can facilitate sensor set design to detect and isolate faults associated with the system’s components and that those are comparable – with some manual adjustment – with the traditional approaches used in sensor set design. The results also show that a functional analysis approach is a viable tool in the PHA process i.e. it can generate FMECA reports and can be used to complement HAZOP studies. Finally using a PHM functional modelling application can benefit the main stakeholders in terms of demonstrating reliability, availability and maintainability of equipment whilst realising cost savings and improved efficiency.